| By Author | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Title | [ A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z | Other Symbols ] |
| By Language |
|
Download this book: [ ASCII | HTML | PDF ] Look for this book on Amazon Tweet |
Title: English: Composition and Literature
Author: Webster, W. F. (William Franklin), 1862-1936
Language: English
As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available.
*** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "English: Composition and Literature" ***
This book is indexed by ISYS Web Indexing system to allow the reader find any word or number within the document.
LITERATURE***
ENGLISH: COMPOSITION AND LITERATURE
by
W. F. WEBSTER
Principal of the East High School
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Houghton Mifflin Company
Boston: 4 Park Street; New York: 85 Fifth Avenue
Chicago: 378-388 Wabash Avenue
The Riverside Press Cambridge
Copyright, 1900 and 1902, by W. F. Webster
All Rights Reserved
PREFACE
In July, 1898, I presented at the National Educational Association,
convened in Washington, a Course of Study in English. At Los Angeles,
in 1899, the Association indorsed the principles[1] of this course,
and made it the basis of the Course in English for High Schools. At
the request of friends, I have prepared this short text-book,
outlining the method of carrying forward the course, and emphasizing
the principles necessary for the intelligent communication of ideas.
It has not been the purpose to write a rhetoric. The many fine
distinctions and divisions, the rarefied examples of very beautiful
forms of language which a young pupil cannot possibly reproduce, or
even appreciate, have been omitted. To teach the methods of simple,
direct, and accurate expression has been the purpose; and this is all
that can be expected of a high school course in English.
The teaching of composition differs from the teaching of Latin or
mathematics in this point: whereas pupils can be compelled to solve a
definite number of problems or to read a given number of lines, it is
not possible to compel expression of the full thought. The full
thought is made of an intellectual and an emotional element. Whatever
is intellectual may be compelled by dint of sheer purpose; whatever is
emotional must spring undriven by outside authority, and uncompelled
by inside determination. A boy saws a cord of wood because he has been
commanded by his father; but he cannot laugh or cry because directed
to do so by the same authority. There must be the conditions which
call forth smiles or tears. So there must be the conditions which call
forth the full expression of thought, both what is intellectual and
what is emotional. This means that the subject shall be one of which
the writer knows something, and in which he is interested; that the
demands in the composition shall not be made a discouragement; and
that the teacher shall be competent and enthusiastic, inspiring in
each pupil a desire to say truly and adequately the best he thinks and
feels.
These conditions cannot be realized while working with dead fragments
of language; but they are realized while constructing living wholes of
composition. It is not two decades ago when the pupil in drawing was
compelled to make straight lines until he made them all crooked. The
pupil in manual training began by drawing intersecting lines on two
sides of a board; then he drove nails into the intersections on one
side, hoping that they would hit the corresponding points on the
other. Now no single line or exercise is an end in itself; it
contributes to some whole. Under the old method the pupil did not care
or try to draw a straight line, or to drive a nail straight; but now,
in order that he may realize the idea that lies in his mind, he does
care and he does try: so lines are drawn better and nails are driven
straighter than before. In all training that combines intellect and
hand, the principle has been recognized that the best work is done
when the pupil's interest has been enlisted by making each exercise
contribute directly to the construction of some whole. Only in the
range of the spiritual are we twenty years behind time, trying to get
the best construction by compulsion. It is quite time that we
recognized that the best work in composition can be done, not while
the pupil is correcting errors in the use of language which he never
dreamed of, nor while he is writing ten similes or ten periodic
sentences, but when both intellect and feeling combine and work
together to produce some whole. Then into the construction of this
whole the pupil will throw all his strength, using the most apt
comparisons, choosing the best words, framing adequate sentences, in
order that the outward form may worthily present to others what to
himself has appeared worthy of expression.
There are some persons who say that other languages are taught by the
word and sentence method; then why not English? These persons overlook
the fact that we are leaving that method as rapidly as possible, and
adopting a more rational method which at once uses a language to
communicate thought. And they overlook another fact of even greater
importance: the pupil entering the high school is by no means a
beginner in English. He has been using the language ten or twelve
years, and has a fluency of expression in English which he cannot
attain in German throughout a high school and college course. The
conditions under which a pupil begins the study of German in a high
school and the study of English composition are entirely dissimilar;
and a conclusion based upon a fancied analogy is worthless.
It is preferable, then, to practice the construction of wholes rather
than the making of exercises; and it is best at the beginning to study
the different kinds of wholes, one at a time, rather than all
together. No one would attempt to teach elimination by addition and
subtraction, by comparison and by substitution, all together; nor
would an instructor take up heat, light, and electricity together. In
algebra, or physics, certain great principles underlie the whole
subject; and these appear and reappear as the study progresses through
its allied parts. Still the best results are obtained by taking up
these several divisions of the whole one after another. And in English
the most certain and definite results are secured by studying the
forms of discourse separately, learning the method of applying to each
the great principles that underlie all composition.
If the forms of discourse are to be studied one after another, which
shall be taken up first? In general, all composition may be separated
into two divisions: composition which deals with things, including
narration and description; and composition which deals with ideas,
comprising exposition and argument. It needs no argument to justify
the position that an essay which deals with things seen and heard is
easier for a beginner to construct than an essay which deals with
ideas invisible and unheard. Whether narration or description should
precede appears yet to be undetermined; for many text-books treat one
first, and perhaps as many the other. I have thought it wiser to begin
with the short story, because it is easier to gain free, spontaneous
expression with narration than with description. To write a whole page
of description is a task for a master, and very few attempt it; but
for the uninitiated amateur about three sentences of description mark
the limit of his ability to see and describe. To get started, to gain
confidence in one's ability to say something, to acquire freedom and
spontaneity of expression,--this is the first step in the practice of
composition. Afterward, when the pupil has discovered that he really
has something to say,--enough indeed to cover three or four pages of
his tablet paper,--then it may be time to begin the study of
description, and to acquire more careful and accurate forms of
expression. Spontaneity should be acquired first,--crude and unformed
it may be, but spontaneity first; and this spontaneity is best gained
while studying narration.
There can be but little question about the order of the other forms.
Description, still dealing with the concrete, offers an admirable
opportunity for shaping and forming the spontaneous expression gained
in narration. Following description, in order of difficulty, come
exposition and argument.
I should be quite misunderstood, did any one gather from this that
during the time in which wholes are being studied, no attention is to
be given to parts; that is, to paragraphs, sentences, and words. All
things cannot be learned at once and thoroughly; there must be some
order of succession. In the beginning the primary object to be aimed
at is the construction of wholes; yet during their construction, parts
can also be incidentally studied. During this time many errors which
annoy and exasperate must be passed over with but a word, in order
that the weight of the criticism may be concentrated on the point then
under consideration. As a pupil advances, he is more and more
competent to appreciate and to form good paragraphs and well-turned
sentences, and to single out from the multitude of verbal signs the
word that exactly presents his thought. The appreciation and the use
of the stronger as well as the finer and more delicate forms of
language come only with much reading and writing; and to demand
everything at the very beginning is little less than sheer madness.
Moreover there never comes a time when the construction of a
paragraph, the shaping of a phrase, or the choice of a word becomes an
end in itself. Paragraphs, sentences, and words are well chosen when
they serve best the whole composition. He who becomes enamored of one
form of paragraph, who always uses periodic sentences, who chooses
only common words, has not yet recognized that the beauty of a phrase
or a word is determined by its fitness, and that it is most beautiful
because it exactly suits the place it fills. The graceful sweep of a
line by Praxiteles or the glorious radiancy of a color by Angelico is
most beautiful in the place it took from the master's hand. So
Lowell's wealth of figurative language and Stevenson's unerring choice
of delicate words are most beautiful, not when torn from their
original setting to serve as examples in rhetorics, but when
fulfilling their part in a well-planned whole. And it is only as the
beauties of literature are born of the thought that they ever succeed.
No one can say to himself, "I will now make a good simile," and
straightway fulfill his promise. If, however, the thought of a writer
takes fire, and instead of the cold, unimpassioned phraseology of the
logician, glowing images crowd up, and phrases tipped with fire, then
figurative language best suits the thought,--indeed, it is the
thought. But imagery upon compulsion,--never. So that at no time
should one attempt to mould fine phrases for the sake of the phrases
themselves, but he should spare no pains with them when they spring
from the whole, when they harmonize with the whole, and when they give
to the whole added beauty and strength.
It is quite unnecessary at this day to urge the study of literature.
It is in the course of study for every secondary school. Yet a word
may be said of the value of this study to the practice of composition.
There are two classes of artists: geniuses and men of talent. Of
geniuses in literature, one can count the names on his fingers; most
authors are simply men of talent. Talent learns to do by doing, and by
observing how others have done. When Brunelleschi left Rome for
Florence, he had closely observed and had drawn every arch of the
stupendous architecture in that ancient city; and so he was adjudged
by his fellow citizens to be the only man competent to lift the dome
of their Duomo. His observation discovered the secret of Rome's
architectural grandeur; and the slow accumulation of such secrets
marks the development of every art and science. Milton had his method
of writing prose, Macaulay his, and Arnold his,--all different and all
excellent. And just as the architect stands before the cathedrals of
Cologne, Milan, and Salisbury to learn the secret of each; as the
painter searches out the secret of Raphael, Murillo, and Rembrandt; so
the author analyzes the masterpieces of literature to discover the
secret of Irving, of Eliot, and of Burke. Not that an author is to be
a servile imitator of any man's manner; but that, having knowledge of
all the secrets of composition, he shall so be enabled to set forth
for others his own thought in all the beauty and perfection in which
he himself conceives it.
One thing further. A landscape painter would not make a primary study
of Angelo's anatomical drawings; a composer of lyric forms of music
would not study Sousa's marches; nor would a person writing a story
look for much assistance in the arguments of Burke. The most direct
benefit is derived from studying the very thing one wishes to know
about, not from studying something else. That the literature may give
the greatest possible assistance to the composition, the course has
been so arranged that narration shall be taught by Hawthorne and
Irving, description by Ruskin and Stevenson, exposition by Macaulay
and Newman, and argument by Webster and Burke. Literature, arranged in
this manner, is not only a stimulus to renewed effort, by showing what
others have done; it is also the most skillful instructor in the art
of composition, by showing how others have done.
It would be quite impossible for any one at the present time to write
a text-book in English that would not repeat what has already been
said by many others. Nor have I tried to. My purpose has been rather
to select from the whole literature of the subject just those
principles which every author of a book on composition or rhetoric has
thought essential, and to omit minor matters and all those about which
there is a difference of opinion. This limits the contents to topics
already familiar to every teacher. It also makes it necessary to
repeat what has been written before many times. Certain books,
however, have treated special divisions of the whole subject in a
thorough and exhaustive manner. There is nothing new to say of Unity,
Mass, and Coherence; Mr. Wendell said all concerning these in his book
entitled "English Composition." So in paragraph development, Scott and
Denney hold the field. Other books which I have frequently used in the
classroom are "Talks on Writing English," by Arlo Bates, and Genung's
"Practical Rhetoric." These books I have found very helpful in
teaching, and I have drawn upon them often while writing this
text-book.
If the field has been covered, then why write a book at all? The
answer is that the principles which are here treated have not been put
into one book. They may be found in several. These essentials I have
repeated many times with the hope that they will be fixed by this
frequent repetition. The purpose has been to focus the attention upon
these, to apply them in the construction of the different forms of
discourse, paragraphs, and sentences, and to repeat them until it is
impossible for a student to forget them. If the book fulfils this
purpose, it was worth writing.
Acknowledgments are due to Messrs. Charles Scribner's Sons for their
kind permission to use the selections from the writings of Robert
Louis Stevenson contained in this book; also, to Messrs. D. Appleton &
Co., The Century Co., and Doubleday & McClure Co. for selections from
the writings of Rudyard Kipling.
W. F. WEBSTER.
MINNEAPOLIS, 1900.
CONTENTS
Chapter I.--Forms of Discourse
Composition 1
English Composition 1
Composition, Written and Oral 2
Conventions of Composition 2
Five Forms of Discourse 3
Definitions 4
Difficulty in distinguishing 4
Purpose of the Author 6
Chapter II.--Choice of Subject
Form and Material 8
Author's Individuality 8
Knowledge of Subject 9
Common Subjects 10
Interest 11
The Familiar 11
Human Life 12
The Strange 12
Chapter III.--Narration
Material of Narration 13
In Action 14
The Commonest Form of Discourse 14
Language as a Means of Expression 15
Without Plot 15
Plot 16
Unity, Mass, and Coherence 20
Main Incident 20
Its Importance 21
Unity 21
Introductions and Conclusions 23
Tedious Enumerations 23
What to include 24
Consistency 25
An Actor as the Story-teller 26
The Omniscience of an Author 27
The Climax 28
Who? Where? When? Why? 29
In what Order? 29
An Outline 32
Movement 32
Rapidity 32
Slowness 33
Description and Narration 34
Characters few, Time short 35
Simple Plot 36
Suggestive Questions and Exercises 38
Chapter IV.--Description
Difficulties of Language for making Pictures 49
Painting and Sculpture 50
Advantages of Language 50
Enumeration and Suggestion 52
Enumerative Description 54
Suggestive Description 55
Value of Observation 55
The Point of View 56
Moving Point of View 58
The Point of View should be stated 58
Mental Point of View 59
Length of Descriptions 63
Arrangement of Details in Description 64
The End of a Description 70
Proportion 73
Arrangement must be natural 74
Use Familiar Images 75
Simile, Metaphor, Personification 77
Choice of Words. Adjectives and Nouns 78
Use of Verbs 79
Suggestive Questions and Exercises 81
Chapter V.--Exposition
General Terms difficult 89
Definition 91
Exposition and Description distinguished 91
Logical Definition 91
Genus and Differentia 92
Requisites of a Good Definition 93
How do Men explain? First, by Repetition 94
Second, by telling the obverse 95
Third, by Details 96
Fourth, by Illustrations 97
Fifth, by Comparisons 98
The Subject 99
The Subject should allow Concrete Treatment 100
The Theme 100
The Title 102
Selection of Material 102
Scale of Treatment 104
Arrangement 108
Use Cards for Subdivisions 108
An Outline 109
Mass the End 110
The Beginning 112
Proportion in Treatment 114
Emphasis of Emotion 115
Phrases indicating Emphasis 116
Coherence 116
Transition Phrases 118
Summary and Transition 119
Suggestive Questions and Exercises 121
Chapter VI.--Argument
Induction and Deduction 129
Syllogism Premises 129
Terms 129
Enthymeme 130
Definition of Terms 130
Undistributed Middle 131
False Premises 131
Method of Induction 132
Arguments from Cause 133
Arguments from Sign 134
Sequence and Cause 135
Arguments from Example 137
Selection of Material 138
Plan called The Brief 138
Climax 139
Inductive precedes Deductive 140
Cause precedes Sign 140
Example follows Sign 141
Refutation 141
Analysis of Burke's Oration 142
Suggestive Questions 148
Chapter VII.--Paragraphs
Definition 151
Long and Short Paragraphs 151
Topic Sentence 157
No Topic Sentence 161
The Plan 162
Kinds of Paragraphs 163
Details 163
Comparisons 165
Repetition 167
Obverse 169
Examples 171
Combines Two or More Forms 173
Unity 173
Need of Outline 174
Mass 174
What begins and what ends a Paragraph? 175
Length of opening and closing Sentences 178
Proportion 179
Coherence and Clearness 180
Two Arrangements of Sentences in a Paragraph 181
Definite References 187
Use of Pronouns 188
Of Conjunctions 190
Parallel Constructions 192
Summary 195
Suggestive Questions 196
Chapter VIII.--Sentences
Definition and Classification. Simple Sentences 200
Compound Sentences 200
Short Sentences 204
Long Sentences 204
Unity 205
Mass 207
End of a Sentence 208
Effect of Anti-climax 210
Use of Climax 211
Loose and Periodic 212
The Period 212
Periodic and Loose combined 214
Which shall be used? 215
Emphasis by Change of Order 217
Subdue Unimportant Elements 219
The Dynamic Point of a Sentence 221
Good Use 223
Clearness gained by Coherence 224
Parallel Construction 226
Balanced Sentences 227
Use of Connectives 228
Suggestive Questions 231
Chapter IX.--Words
Need of a Large Vocabulary 236
Dictionary 237
Study of Literature 238
Vulgarisms are not reputable 240
Slang is not reputable 240
Words must be National. Provincialisms 242
Technical and Bookish Words 242
Foreign Words 243
Words in Present Use 244
Words in their Present Meaning 245
Words of Latin and Saxon Origin 245
General and Specific 248
Use Words that suggest most 249
Synecdoche, Metonymy 250
Care in Choice of Specific Words 250
Avoid Hackneyed Phrases 253
"Fine Writing" 253
In Prose avoid Poetical Words 254
Chapter X.--Figures of Speech
Figurative Language 257
Figures based upon Likeness 259
Metaphor 260
Epithet 260
Personification 260
Apostrophe 261
Allegory 261
Simile 261
Figures based upon Sentence Structure 262
Inversion 262
Exclamation 262
Interrogation 262
Climax 262
Irony 262
Metonymy 263
Synecdoche 263
Allusion 263
Hyperbole 263
Exercises in Figures 264
Chapter XI.--Verse Forms
Singing Verse 269
Poetic Feet 272
Kinds of Metre 273
Stanzas 275
Scansion 276
Variations in Metres 276
First and Last Foot 281
Kinds of Poetry 284
Exercises in Metres 286
APPENDIX
A. Suggestions to Teachers 293
B. The Form of a Composition 296
C. Marks for Correction of Compositions 300
D. Punctuation 301
E. Supplementary List of Literature 309
A COURSE OF STUDY
IN LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION
The Course of Study which follows is presented, not because it is
better than many others which might be made. For the purposes of this
book it was necessary that some course be adopted as the basis of the
text. The principles which guided in arranging this course I believe
are sound; but the preferences of teachers and the peculiarities of
environment will often make it wise to use other selections from
literature. Of this a large "supplementary list" is given at the back
of the book.
It is now a generally accepted truth that the study of English should
continue through the four years of a high-school course. The division
of time that seems best is to take Narration and Description in the
first year. In connection with Description, Figures of Speech should
be studied. The next year, Exposition and Paragraphs form the major
part of the work. This may be pleasantly broken by a study of Poetry,
following the outline in the chapter on Verse Forms. In the third
year, while the work in literature is mainly the Novel and the Drama,
Sentences and Words should be studied in composition, with a review of
the chapters on Narration and Description. Towards the close of the
year, Exposition should be reviewed and the study of Argument taken
up. The fourth year should be devoted to the study of such College
Requirements as have not been taken in the course, and to the study of
the History of English Literature as given in some good text book.
In some instances, it will be found impossible to give so much time to
the study of English. In such cases, the amount of literature to be
studied should be decreased, and the work in the text book should be
more rapidly done. The sequence of the parts should remain the same,
but the time should be modified to suit the needs of any special
environment.
NARRATION.
Composition.
_To give Spontaneity._
I. External Form of Composition (p. 296).
II. Marks for the Correction of Compositions (p. 300).
III. Simple Rules for Punctuation (pp. 301-309).
IV. Forms of Discourse. Definitions (pp. 1-7).
V. Choice of Subject (pp. 8-12).
VI. Study of Narration (pp. 13-48).
a. Definition and General Discussion.
b. Narration without Plot.
Interest the Essential Feature.
c. Narration with Plot.
1. Selection of Main Incident of first Importance.
It gives to the story
Unity,
ridding it of
Long Introductions and Conclusions,
Tedious Enumerations, and
Irrelevant Details.
2. Arrangement of Material.
Close of Story contains Main Incident.
Opening of Story contains Characters, Place, and Time.
Incidents generally follow in Order of Time.
3. Movement.
4. Use of Description in Narration.
5. Some General Considerations.
Literature.
The Great Stone Face, The Gentle Boy, The Gray Champion, Roger
Malvin's Burial, and other Stories. _Hawthorne._
Tales of a Wayside Inn. _Longfellow._
The Gold Bug. _Poe._
Marmion, or The Lady of the Lake. _Scott._
A Christmas Carol, or The Cricket on the Hearth. _Dickens._
The Vision of Sir Launfal, and other Narrative Poems. _Lowell._
An Incident of the French Camp, Hervé Riel, The Pied Piper, How they
brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix. _Browning._
Meaning of the Author, calling for
A Study of Words.
Outline of Story.
Turning Points in the Story.
Central Idea, or Purpose of the Story.
Method of the Author.
Is there a Main Incident?
Do all other Incidents converge to it?
Is the Order a Sequence of Time alone?
Is the Interest centred in Characters or Plot?
Style of the Author.
Compare the Works of the Author.
DESCRIPTION.
Composition.
_To secure Accuracy of Expression_ (pp. 49-88).
I. Definition and General Discussion.
Difficulties in Language as a Means of Picturing.
Value of Observation.
II. Structure of Whole.
a. To secure Unity.
Select a Point of View.
b. To secure Coherence.
Arrange Details in Natural Order.
c. To secure Emphasis.
Arrange and proportion Treatment to effect your Purpose.
III. Paragraph Structure.
Definition.
Length of Paragraphs.
Development of Paragraphs.
IV. Words.
Specific rather than General.
Adjectives, Nouns, and Verbs.
V. Figures Of Speech (pp. 257-268).
Based on Likeness.
Based on Sentence Structure.
Miscellaneous Figures.
Literature.
The Old Manse, The Old Apple Dealer. _Hawthorne._
An Indian-Summer Reverie, The Dandelion, The Birch, The Oak, and other
Descriptive Poems. _Lowell._
The Fall of the House of Usher. _Poe._
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Selections from the Sketch Book. _Irving._
Selections from Childe Harold. _Byron._
The Deserted Village. _Goldsmith._
Julius Cæsar. _Shakespeare._
Poems selected from Palgrave's Golden Treasury.
Meaning of the Author (as under Narration).
Method of the Author.
Does the Author keep his Point of View?
Are the Details arranged in a Natural Order?
Has any Detail a Supreme Importance?
Are the Details treated in Proper Proportion?
Has the Whole a Unity of Effect? Do you see the Picture
distinctly?
For what Purpose has the Author used Description?
Does the Author employ Figures?
Style of the Author.
EXPOSITION, PARAGRAPHS, VERSE FORMS.
Composition.
_To encourage Logical Thinking and Adequate Expression_
(pp. 89-127).
_Exposition._
I. Definition and General Considerations.
II. Exposition of Terms. Definition.
III. Exposition of Propositions.
a. Clear Statement of the Proposition in a "Key Sentence."
This will limit
b. The Discussion.
1. What shall be included?
2. What shall be excluded?
3. How shall Important Matters be emphasized?
Mass and Proportion.
Expansion and Condensation.
To effect these ends use an
4. Outline.
_Paragraphs_ (pp. 151-199).
I. Definition.
II. Length of Paragraphs.
III. Development of Paragraphs.
IV. Principles of Structure.
Unity.
Mass.
Coherence.
_Verse Forms_ (pp. 269-291).
Poetry Defined.
Kinds of Feet.
Number of Feet in a Verse.
Substitutions and Rests.
Kinds of Poetry.
Literature.
Essay on Milton. _Macaulay._
Essay on Addison. _Macaulay._
Commemoration Ode. _Lowell._
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. _Coleridge._
Intimations of Immortality, and other Poems. _Wordsworth._
Selections from Palgrave's Golden Treasury.
The Bunker Hill Oration, or Adams and Jefferson. _Webster._
Sesame and Lilies. _Ruskin._
Meaning of the Author.
Outline showing the Main Thesis with the Dependence
of Subordinate Propositions.
Method of the Author.
Does he hold to his Point and so gain Unity
Does he arrange his Material so as to secure Emphasis?
Does one Paragraph grow out of another?
Does each Paragraph treat a Single Topic?
Are the Sentences dovetailed together?
Does the Author use Figures?
Are the Figures Effective?
Are his Words General or Specific?
Style of the Author.
Is it Clear?
Has it Force?
Is the Diction Elegant?
How has he gained these Ends?
SENTENCES, WORDS, ARGUMENT.
Composition.
_Sentences_ (pp. 200-234).
I. Definition and Classification.
II. Principles of Structure.
a. Unity.
b. Mass.
1. Prominent Positions in a Sentence.
2. Periodic Sentences.
3. Loose Sentences.
c. Coherence.
1. Parallel Constructions.
2. Connectives.
_Words_ (pp. 235-256).
Reputable Words.
Latin or Saxon Words.
General or Specific.
Figures of Speech.
The One Rule for the Use of Words.
_Narration and Description Reviewed._
_Exposition Reviewed._
Literature.
_Argument_ (pp. 128-150).
I. Kinds of Argument.
II. Order of Arguments.
III. Refutation.
Sir Roger de Coverley Papers. _Addison._
The Vicar of Wakefield. _Goldsmith._
Silas Marner. _Eliot._
Ivanhoe. _Scott._
Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream.
_Shakespeare._
Conciliation with the Colonies. _Burke._
COMPOSITION.
In the last year of the course, the compositions should be such as
will test the maturer powers of the pupil. They should be written
under the careful supervision of the teacher. They should be of all
forms of discourse, and the subjects should be drawn from the subjects
of study in the high school, especially from the literature.
LITERATURE.
_Difficult Selections._
L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, and Lycidas. _Milton._
Paradise Lost. Two Books. _Milton._
Essay on Burns. _Carlyle._
In Memoriam, The Princess, and other Poems. _Tennyson._
Selections. _Browning._
Selections. _Emerson._
A History of English Literature
* * * * *
ENGLISH:
COMPOSITION AND LITERATURE
CHAPTER I
FORMS OF DISCOURSE
Composition.
Composition, from the Latin words _con,_ meaning together, and
_ponere,_ meaning to place, signifies a placing together, a grouping
or arrangement of objects or of ideas. This arrangement is generally
made so that it will produce a desired result. Speaking accurately,
the putting together is the composition. Much of the desired result is
gained by care in the selection of materials. Placing together a
well-worn book, a lamp, and a pair of heavy bowed spectacles makes a
suggestive picture. The selection and grouping of these objects is
spoken of as the composition of the picture. So in music, an author
composes, when he groups certain musical tones and phrases so that
they produce a desired effect. In literature, too, composition is,
strictly speaking, the selection and arrangement of materials, whether
the incidents of a story or the details of a description, to fulfill a
definite purpose.
English Composition.
In practice, however, English composition has come to include more
than the selection and arrangement of the materials,--incidents,
objects, or ideas, as the case may be; the term has been extended to
include the means by which the speaker or writer seeks to convey this
impression to other persons. As a painter must understand drawing, the
value of lights and shades, and the mixing of colors before he can
successfully reproduce for others the idea he has to express, so the
artist in literature needs a knowledge of elementary grammar and of
the simpler usages of language in order clearly to represent to others
the idea which lies in his own mind. As commonly understood, then,
_English composition_ may be defined as _the art of selecting,
arranging, and communicating ideas by means of the English language._
Composition, Written and Oral.
The term "English composition" is now generally understood to mean
written composition, and not oral composition. At first thought they
seem to be the same thing. So far as the selection and arrangement of
matter is concerned, they are the same. Moreover, both use words, and
both employ sentences; but here the likeness ends. If sentences should
be put upon paper exactly as they were spoken, in most instances they
would not convey to a reader the same thought they conveyed to a
listener. It is much more exacting to express the truth one wishes to
convey, by silent, featureless symbols than by that wonderful organ of
communication, the human voice. Now, if to the human voice be added
eyes, features, gestures, and pose, we easily understand the great
advantage a speaker has over a writer.
Conventions of Composition.
Moreover, there are imposed upon a writer certain established rules
which he must follow. He must spell words correctly, and he must use
correctly marks of punctuation. These things need not annoy a speaker;
yet they are conditions which must be obeyed by a writer. A man who
eats with a knife may succeed in getting his food to his mouth, yet
certain conventions exclude such a person from polite society. So in
composition, it is possible for a person to make himself understood,
though he write "alright" instead of "all right," and never use a
semicolon; still, such a person could hardly be considered a highly
cultured writer. To express one's thoughts correctly and with
refinement requires absolute obedience to the common conventions of
good literature.
The study of composition includes, first, the careful selection of
materials and their effective arrangement; and second, a knowledge of
the established conventions of literature: of spelling; of the common
uses of the marks of punctuation,--period, question mark, exclamation
point, colon, semicolon, comma; of the common idioms of our language;
and of the elements of its grammar. From the beginning of the high
school course, the essay, the paragraph, the sentence, the word, are
to be studied with special attention to the effective use of each in
adequately communicating ideas.
Five Forms of Discourse.
All written composition may be arranged in two classes, or groups. The
first group will include all composition that deals with actual
happenings and real things; the second, all that deals with abstract
thoughts and spiritual ideas. The first will include narration and
description; the second, exposition, argument, and persuasion. All
literature, then, may be separated into five classes,--narration,
description, exposition, argument, and persuasion.
Narration tells what things do; description tells how things look.
Narration deals with occurrences; description deals with appearances.
Exposition defines a term, or explains a proposition; argument proves
the truth or falsity of a proposition; persuasion urges to action upon
a proposition. Exposition explains; argument convinces; persuasion
arouses. These are the broad lines of distinction which separate the
five forms of discourse.
Definitions.
_Narration is that form of discourse which recounts events in a
sequence._ It includes stories, novels, romances, biographies, some
books of travel, and some histories.
_Description is that form of discourse which aims to present a
picture._ It seldom occurs alone, but it is usually found in
combination with the other forms of discourse.
_Exposition is that form of discourse which seeks to explain a term or
a proposition._ Text-books, books of information, theses, most
histories, many magazine articles, and newspaper leaders are of this
class of literature.
_Argument is that form of discourse which has for its object the proof
of the truth or falsity of a proposition._
_Persuasion is that form of discourse the purpose of which is to
influence the will._
Difficulty in distinguishing.
Though these definitions seem to set apart the great classes of
literature, and to insure against any danger of confusion, it is not
always easy to place individual pieces of literature in one of these
divisions. Whittier's "Barbara Frietchie" and Stevenson's "Treasure
Island" are narrative beyond any question; but what about "Snow-Bound"
and "Travels with a Donkey" by the same authors? Are they narration or
description? In them the narrative and descriptive portions are so
nearly equal that one hesitates to set them down to either class; the
reader is constantly called from beautiful pictures to delightful
stories. The narrative can easily be separated from the descriptive
portions; but when this has been done, has it been decided whether the
whole piece is narration or description?
When a person takes up the other forms of discourse, the difficulty
becomes still greater. Description and narration are frequently used
in exposition. If a boy should be asked to explain the working of a
steam engine, he would, in all likelihood, begin with a description of
an engine. If his purpose was to explain how an engine works, and was
not to tell how an engine looks, the whole composition would be
exposition. So, too, it is often the easiest way to explain what one
means by telling a story. The expression of such thoughts would be
exposition, although it might contain a number of stories and
descriptions.
Narration and description may be found in a piece of exposition; and
all three may be employed in argument. If a person should wish to
prove the dangers of intemperance, he might enforce his proof by a
story, or by a description of the condition of the nervous system
after a drunken revel. And one does not need to do more than explain
the results of intemperance to a sensible man to prove to him that he
should avoid all excesses. The explanation alone is argument enough
for such a person. Still, is such an explanation exposition or
argument? If the man cared nothing about convincing another that there
are dangers in intemperance, did not wish to prove that the end of
intemperance is death and dishonor, the composition is as much
exposition as the explanation of a steam engine. If, on the other
hand, he explained these results in order to convince another that he
should avoid intemperance, then the piece is argument.
Persuasion introduces a new element into composition; for, while
exposition and argument are directed to a man's reason, persuasion is
addressed to the emotions and the will. Its purpose is to arouse to
action. One can readily imagine that a simple explanation of the evils
of intemperance might be quite enough to convince a man that its
dangers are truly great,--so great that he would determine to fight
these evils with all his strength. In such a case explanation alone
has convinced him; and it has aroused him to do something. Is the
piece exposition, or argument, or persuasion? Here, as before, the
answer is found in the purpose of the author. If he intended only to
explain, the piece is exposition; if to convince, it is argument; if
to arouse to action, it belongs to the literature of persuasion.
It must now be plain that few pieces of literature are purely one form
of discourse. The forms are mingled in most of our literature. Hardly
a story can be found that does not contain some descriptions; and a
description of any considerable length is sure to contain some
narrative portions. So, too, narration and description are often found
in exposition, argument, and persuasion; and these last three forms
are frequently combined.
Purpose of the Author.
It must also be evident that the whole piece of literature will best
be classified by discovering the purpose of the author. If his purpose
is simply to tell a good story, his work is narration; if the purpose
is merely to place a picture before the reader's mind, it is
description; if to explain conditions and nothing more, it is
exposition; if to prove to the reason the truth or falsity of a
proposition, it is argument; while, if the writer addresses himself to
the emotions and the will, no matter whether he tells anecdotes or
paints lurid pictures, explains conditions or convinces of the dangers
of the present course,--if he does all these to urge the reader to do
something, the composition belongs to the literature of persuasion.
The five forms of discourse are most easily distinguished by
discovering the purpose of the author.
One addition should be made. Few novels are written in which there is
nothing more than a story. Nearly all contain some teaching; and it is
a safe conclusion that the authors have taught "on purpose." In "Baa,
Baa, Black Sheep," Kipling has shown the imperative necessity of a
"real, live, lovely mamma;" in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Irving
has placed before us a charming picture of rural life in a dreamy
Dutch village on the Hudson; and in his "Christmas Carol," Dickens
shows plainly that happiness is not bought and sold even in London,
and that the only happy man is he who shares with another's need. Yet
all of these, and the hundreds of their kind, whatever the purpose of
the authors when writing them, belong to the "story" or "novel" class.
The purpose _in telling_ the story is secondary to the purpose _to
tell_ a story. They are to be classified as narration.
English composition, then, is a study of the selection and arrangement
of ideas, and of the methods of using the English language to
communicate them. All composition is divided into five great classes.
These classes have broad lines of distinction, which are most easily
applied by determining the purpose of the author.
* * * * *
CHAPTER II
CHOICE OF SUBJECT
Form and Material.
From the considerations in the preceding chapter may be derived
several principles regarding the choice of subject. If the composition
is to be narrative, it should be upon a subject that readily lends
itself to narrative form. One can tell a story about "A Day's Hunt" or
"What We did Hallowe'en;" but it would try one's powers of imagination
to write a story of "A Tree" or "A Chair." The latter subjects do not
lend themselves to narration, but they may be described. Josiah P.
Cooke has written a brilliant exposition of "Fire" in "The New
Chemistry;" yet a young person would be foolish to take "Fire" as a
subject for exposition, though he might easily write a good
description of "How the Fire looked from My Window," or narrate "How a
Fireman rescued My Sister." So in all work in composition, _select a
subject that readily lends itself to the form of discourse demanded;
or, conversely, select the form of discourse suitable for presenting
most effectively your material._
Author's Individuality.
If an author is writing for other purposes than for conscious
practice, he should choose the form of discourse in which he can best
work, and to which he can best shape his material. Some men tell
stories well; others are debaters; while yet others are wonderfully
gifted with eloquence. Emerson understood life thoroughly. He knew
man's feelings, his motives, his hopes, his strength, his weakness;
yet one cannot imagine Emerson shaping this material into a novel. But
just a little way down the road lived a wizard who could transmute the
commonest events of this workaday world to the most beautiful shapes;
no one wishes that Hawthorne had written essays. The second principle
guiding in the choice of a subject is this: _Select a subject which is
suited to your peculiar ability as an author._
Knowledge of Subject.
The form, then, should suit the matter; and it should be the form in
which the author can work. There is a third principle that should
guide in the choice of a subject. _It should be a subject of which the
author knows something._ Pupils often exclaim, "What can I write
about!" as if they were expected to find something new to write. An
exercise in composition has not for its object the proclaiming of any
new and unheard-of thing; it is an exercise in the expression of
things already known. Even when the subject is known, the treatment
offers difficulties enough. It is not true that what is thoroughly
understood is easily explained. Many excellent scholars have written
very poor text-books because they had not learned the art of
expression. A necessary antecedent of all good composition is a full
and accurate knowledge of the subject; and even when one knows all
about it, the clear expression of the thought will be difficult
enough.
To demand accurate knowledge of the subject before an author begins
work upon it narrows the field from which themes may be drawn.
Burroughs is an authority on all the tenants of our groves;
"Wake-Robin," "Pepacton," and his other books all show a master's
certain hand. So Stedman is an authority in matters relating to
literature. But Burroughs and Stedman alike would find difficulty in
writing an essay on "Electricity in the Treatment of Nervous
Diseases." They do not know about it. A boy in school probably knows
something of fishing; of this he can write. A girl can tell of "The
Last Parlor Concert." Both could write very entertainingly of their
"First Algebra Recitation;" neither could write a convincing essay on
"The Advantages of Free Trade."
Common Subjects.
This will seem to limit the list of subjects to the commonplace. The
fact is that in a composition exercise the purpose is not to startle
the world with some new thing; it is to learn the art of expression.
And here in the region of common things, things thoroughly understood,
every bit of effort can be given to the manner of expression. The
truth is, it does not require much art to make a book containing new
and interesting material popular; the matter in the book carries it in
spite of poor composition. Popular it may be, but popularity is not
immortality. Columns of poorly written articles upon "Dewey" and "The
Philippines" have been eagerly read by thousands of Americans; it
would require a literary artist of great power to write a one-column
article on "Pigs" so that it would be eagerly read by thousands. Real
art in composition is much more manifest when an author takes a common
subject and treats it in such a way that it glows with new life.
Richard Le Gallienne has written about a drove of pigs so beautifully
that one forgets all the traditions about these common animals.[2]
Choose common subjects, then,--subjects that allow every particle of
your strength to go into the manner of saying what you already know.
The requirement that the subject shall be common does not mean that
the subject shall be trivial. "Sliding to First," "How Billy won the
Game," with all of this class of subjects, at once put the writer into
a trifling, careless attitude toward his work. The subjects themselves
seem to call forth a cheap, slangy vocabulary and the vulgar phrases
of sporting life. An equally common subject could be selected which
would call forth serious, earnest effort. If a boy knew nothing except
about ball games, it would be advisable for him to write upon this
subject. Such a condition is hardly possible in a high school. _Choose
common subjects, but subjects that call for earnest thinking and
dignified expression._
Interest.
Interest is another consideration in the choice of a subject. It
applies equally to writer and reader. _Choose subjects that are
interesting._ Not only must an author know about the subject; he must
be interested in it. A pupil may have accurate knowledge of the uses
of a semicolon; but he would not be likely to succeed in a paragraph
about semicolons, largely because he is not much interested in
semicolons. This matter of interest is so important that it is well to
know what things all persons, authors and readers alike, are
interested in. What, then, is generally interesting?
The Familiar.
First, _the familiar is interesting._ When reading a newspaper each
one instinctively turns to the local column, or glances down the
general news columns to see if there is anything from his home town.
To a former resident, Jim Benson's fence in Annandale is more
interesting than the bronze doors of the Congressional Library in
Washington. For the same reason a physician lights upon "a new cure
for consumption," a lawyer devours Supreme Court decisions, while the
dealer in silks is absorbed in the process of making silk without the
aid of the silkworm. Each is interested in that which to him is most
familiar.
Human Life.
Second, _human life in all its phases is interesting._ The account of
a fire or of a railroad accident takes on a new interest when, in
addition to the loss of property, there has been a loss of life. War
is horribly fascinating, not so much because there is a wanton
destruction of property, as because it involves the slaughter of men.
Stories about trees and animals are usually failures, unless handled
by artists who breathe into them the life of man. Andersen's
"Tannenbaum" and Kipling's "Jungle Books" are intensely interesting
because in them trees and animals feel and act just as men do.
The Strange.
Third, _the romantic, the unique, and the impossible are interesting._
A new discovery, a new invention, a people of which little is
known,--anything new is interesting. The stories of Rider Haggard and
Jules Verne have been popular because they deal with things which eye
hath not seen. This peculiar trait of man allows him to relish a good
fish story, or the latest news from the sea-serpent. Just for the same
reason, children love to hear of Little Red Riding Hood and
Cinderella. Children and their parents are equally interested in those
things which are entirely outside of their own experience.
These, then, are the general conditions which govern the choice of a
subject. It shall easily lend itself to the form of discourse chosen;
it shall be suited to the peculiar ability of the author; it shall be
thoroughly understood by the author,--common, but not trivial; it
shall be interesting to both reader and author.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III
NARRATION
Material of Narration.
Narration has been defined as the form of discourse which recounts
events in a sequence. It includes not only letters, journals, memoirs,
biographies, and many histories, but, in addition, that great body of
literature which people generally include in the comprehensive term of
"stories."
If this body of literature be examined, it will be found that it deals
with things as opposed to ideas; incidents as opposed to propositions.
Sometimes, it is true, the author of a story is in reality dealing
with ideas. In the fable about "The Hare and the Tortoise," the
tortoise stands for the idea of slow, steady plodding; while the hare
is the representative of quick wits which depend on their ability to
show a brilliant burst of speed when called upon. The fable teaches
better than an essay can that the dullness which perseveres will
arrive at success sooner than brilliancy of mind which wastes its time
in doing nothing to the purpose. Andersen's "Ugly Duckling," Ruskin's
"King of the Golden River," and Lowell's "Sir Launfal" stand for deep
spiritual ideas, which we understand better for this method of
presentation. In an allegory like "Pilgrim's Progress," the passions
and emotions, the sins and weaknesses of men are treated as if they
were real persons. Ideas are represented by living, breathing persons;
and we may say that all such narratives deal, not with ideas, but, for
want of a better word, with things.
In Action.
Not only does narration deal with things, but with things doing
something. Things inactive might be written of, but this would be
description. It is necessary in narration that the things be in an
active mood; that something be doing. "John struck James," then, is a
narrative sentence; it tells that John has been doing something.
Still, this one sentence would not ordinarily be accepted as
narration. For narration there must be a series, a sequence of
individual actions. _Recounting events in a sequence is narration._
The Commonest Form of Discourse.
Narration is the most popular form of discourse. Between one fourth
and one third of all books published are stories; and more than one
half of the books issued by public libraries belong to the narrative
class. Such a computation does not include the large number of stories
read in our papers and magazines. In addition to being the most
popular form of discourse, it is the most natural. It is the first
form of connected discourse of the child; it is the form employed by
the uncultured in giving his impressions; it is the form most used in
conversation. Moreover, narration is the first form found in great
literatures: the Iliad and the Odyssey, the songs of the troubadours
in France, and the minnesingers in Germany, the chronicles and ballads
of England,--all are narrative.
Language as a Means of Expression.
Narration is especially suited to the conditions imposed by language.
Men do not think in single words, but in groups of words,--phrases,
clauses, and sentences. In hearing, too, men do not consider the
individual words; the mind waits until a group of words, a phrase, or
a simple sentence perhaps,--which expresses a unit of thought, has
been uttered. In narration these groups of words follow in a sequence
exactly as the actions which they represent do. Take this rather lurid
bit from Stevenson:--
"He dropped his cutlass as he jumped, and when he felt the
pistol, whipped straight round and laid hold of me, roaring
out an oath; and at the same time either my courage came
again, or I grew so much afraid as came to the same thing;
for I gave a shriek and shot him in the midst of the body."
("Kidnapped.")
Each phrase or clause here is a unit of thought, and each follows the
others in the same order as the events they tell of occurred. On the
other hand, when one attempts description, and exposition too in many
cases, he realizes the great difficulties imposed by the language
itself; for in these forms of discourse the author not infrequently
wishes to put the whole picture before the reader at once, or to set
out several propositions at the same time, as belonging to one general
truth. In order that the reader may get the complete picture or the
complete thought, he must hold in mind often a whole paragraph before
he unites it into the one conception the author intended. In narration
one action is completed; it can be dropped. Then another follows,
which can also be dropped. They need not be held in mind until the
paragraph is finished. Narration is exactly suited to the means of its
communication. The events which are recorded, and the sentences which
record them, both follow in a sequence.
Without Plot.
The sequence of events in narration may be a simple sequence of time,
in which case the narrative is without plot. This is the form of
narration employed in newspapers in giving the events of the day. It
is used in journals, memoirs, biographies, and many elementary
histories. It makes little demand upon an author further than that he
shall say clearly something that is interesting. Interesting it must
be, if the author wishes it to be read; readers will not stay over
dull material. Newspapers and magazines look out for interesting
material, and it is for the matter in them that they are read. So
memoirs and biographies are read, not to find out what happens at
last,--that is known,--but to pick up information concerning an
interesting subject.
Plot.
Or the sequence may be a more subtle and binding relation of cause and
effect. This is the sequence employed in stories. One thing happens
because another thing has happened. Generally the sequence of time and
the sequence of cause and effect correspond; for effects come after
causes. When, however, more than one cause is introduced, or when some
cause is at work which the author hides until he can most
advantageously produce it, or when an effect is held back for purposes
of creating interest, the events may not be related exactly in the
order in which they occurred. When any sequence is introduced in
addition to the simple sequence of time, or when the time sequence is
disturbed for the purpose of heightening interest, there is an
arrangement of the parts which is generally termed plot.
Plot is a term difficult to define. We feel, however, that Grant's
"Memoirs" have no plot, and we feel just as sure that "King Lear" has
a plot. So, too, we say that "Robinson Crusoe" has little, almost no
plot; that the plot is simple in "Treasure Island," and that "Les
Misérables" has an intricate plot. A plot seems to demand more than a
mere succession of events. _Any arrangement of the parts of a
narrative so that the reader's interest is aroused concerning the
result of the series of events detailed is a plot._
It often occurs that a book which, as a whole, is without a plot,
contains incidents which have a plot. In "Travels with a Donkey," by
Stevenson, no one cares for the plot of the whole book,--in fact there
is none; yet the reader is interested in the purchase of the "neat and
high bred" Modestine up to the "last interview with Father Adam in a
billiard-room at the witching hour of dawn, when I administered the
brandy." This incident has a plot. The following is a paragraph from
"An Autumn Effect" by Mr. Stevenson. The simple events are perfectly
ordered, and there is a delightful surprise at the end. This paragraph
has a plot. Yet the thirty pages of "An Autumn Effect" could not be
said to have a plot.
"Bidding good-morning to my fellow-traveler, I left the road
and struck across country. It was rather a revelation to
pass from between the hedgerows and find quite a bustle on
the other side, a great coming and going of school-children
upon by-paths, and, in every second field, lusty horses and
stout country-folk a-ploughing. The way I followed took me
through many fields thus occupied, and through many strips
of plantation, and then over a little space of smooth turf,
very pleasant to the feet, set with tall fir-trees and
clamorous with rooks, making ready for the winter, and so
back again into the quiet road. I was now not far from the
end of my day's journey. A few hundred yards farther, and,
passing through a gap in the hedge, I began to go down hill
through a pretty extensive tract of young beeches. I was
soon in shadow myself, but the afternoon sun still colored
the upmost boughs of the wood, and made a fire over my head
in the autumnal foliage. A little faint vapor lay among the
slim tree-stems in the bottom of the hollow; and from
farther up I heard from time to time an outburst of gross
laughter, as though clowns were making merry in the bush.
There was something about the atmosphere that brought all
sights and sounds home to one with a singular purity, so
that I felt as if my senses had been washed with water.
After I had crossed the little zone of mist, the path began
to remount the hill; and just as I, mounting along with it,
had got back again from the head downwards, into the thin
golden sunshine, I saw in front of me a donkey tied to a
tree. Now, I have a certain liking for donkeys, principally,
I believe, because of the delightful things that Sterne has
written of them. But this was not after the pattern of the
ass at Lyons. He was of a white color, that seemed to fit
him rather for rare festal occasions than for constant
drudgery. Besides, he was very small, and of the daintiest
proportions you can imagine in a donkey. And so, sure
enough, you had only to look at him to see he had never
worked. There was something too roguish and wanton in his
face, a look too like that of a schoolboy or a street Arab,
to have survived much cudgeling. It was plain that these
feet had kicked off sportive children oftener than they had
plodded with freight through miry lanes. He was altogether a
fine-weather, holiday sort of a donkey; and though he was
just then somewhat solemnized and rueful, he still gave
proof of the levity of his disposition by impudently wagging
his ears at me as I drew near. I say he was somewhat
solemnized just then; for with the admirable instinct of all
men and animals under restraint, he had so wound and wound
the halter about the tree that he could go neither back nor
forwards, nor so much as put his head down to browse. There
he stood, poor rogue, part puzzled, part angry, part, I
believe, amused. He had not given up hope, and dully
revolved the problem in his head, giving ever and again
another jerk at the few inches of free rope that still
remained unwound. A humorous sort of sympathy for the
creature took hold upon me. I went up, and, not without some
trouble on my part, and much distrust and resistance on the
part of Neddy, got him forced backwards until the whole
length of the halter was set loose, and he was once more as
free a donkey as I dared to make him. I was pleased (as
people are) with this friendly action to a fellow-creature
in tribulation, and glanced back over my shoulder to see how
he was profiting by his freedom. The brute was looking after
me; and no sooner did he catch my eye than he put up his
long white face into the air, pulled an impudent mouth at
me, and began to bray derisively. If ever any one person
made a grimace at another, that donkey made a grimace at me.
The hardened ingratitude of his behavior, and the
impertinence that inspired his whole face as he curled up
his lip, and showed his teeth and began to bray, so tickled
me and was so much in keeping with what I had imagined to
myself of his character, that I could not find it in my
heart to be angry, and burst into a peal of hearty laughter.
This seemed to strike the ass as a repartee, so he brayed at
me again by way of rejoinder; and we went on for awhile,
braying and laughing, until I began to grow a-weary of it,
and shouting a derisive farewell, turned to pursue my way.
In so doing--it was like going suddenly into cold water--I
found myself face to face with a prim, little old maid. She
was all in a flutter, the poor old dear! She had concluded
beyond question that this must be a lunatic who stood
laughing aloud at a white donkey in the placid beech-woods.
I was sure, by her face, that she had already recommended
her spirit most religiously to Heaven, and prepared herself
for the worst. And so, to reassure her, I uncovered and
besought her, after a very staid fashion, to put me on my
way to Great Missenden. Her voice trembled a little, to be
sure, but I think her mind was set at rest; and she told me,
very explicitly, to follow the path until I came to the end
of the wood, and then I should see the village below me in
the bottom of the valley. And, with mutual courtesies, the
little old maid and I went on our respective ways."
Books of travel, memoirs, and biographies, as whole books, are
generally without any arrangement serious enough to be termed a plot;
yet a large part of the interest in such books would be lost were the
incidents there collected not well told, with a conscious attempt to
set them out in the very best fashion; indeed, if each incident did
not have a plot. In "Vanity Fair" with its six hundred pages, in
"Silas Marner" with its two hundred pages, in the short stories of our
best magazines, in the spicy little anecdotes in the "Youth's
Companion,"--in the least bit of a good story as well as the
three-volume novel, the authors have used the means best suited to
retain the interest to the end. They have constructed plots.
Unity, Mass, and Coherence.
In the construction of any piece of composition there are three
principles of primary importance: they are Unity, which is concerned
with the material itself; and Mass and Coherence, which are concerned
with the arrangement of the material. A composition has unity when all
the material has been so sifted and selected that each part
contributes its share to the central thought of the whole. Whether of
a sentence, a paragraph, or a whole composition, all those parts must
be excluded which do not bring something of value to the whole; and
everything must be included which is necessary to give a clear
understanding of the whole. Mass, the second principle of structure,
demands that those parts of a composition, paragraph, or sentence
which are of most importance shall be so placed that they will arrest
the attention. By coherence is meant that principle of structure
which, in sentences, paragraphs, and whole compositions, places those
parts related in thought near together, and keeps separate those parts
which are separated in thought.
Main Incident.
For the construction of a story that will retain the reader's interest
to the end, for the selection of such material as will contribute to a
central thought, for the arrangement of this material so that the most
important matter shall occupy the most important position in the
theme, one simple rule is of value. It is this: _First choose the main
incident_ towards which all the other incidents converge, and for the
accomplishment of which the preceding incidents are necessary. A few
pages will be given to the application of this rule, and to the
results of its application.
Its Importance.
There should be in each story, however slight the plot, some incident
that is more important than the others, and toward which all the
others converge. A reader is disappointed if, after reading a story
through, he finds that there is no worthy ending, that all the
preparation was made for no purpose. If, in "Wee Willie Winkie,"
Kipling had stopped just before Miss Allardyce started across the
river, it would have been a poor story. It would have had no ending.
It is because a story gets somewhere that we like it. Yet not just
somewhere; it must arrive at a place worthy of all the preparation
that has preceded. A very common fault with the compositions of young
persons is that they begin big and end little. It is not infrequent
that the first paragraph promises well; the second is not quite so
good; and the rest gradually fall off until the end is worthless. The
order should be changed. Have the first paragraph promise well, make
the second better, and the last best of all. The main incident should
be more important than each incident that precedes it. Get the main
incident in mind before beginning; be sure it is the main incident;
then bend all your energies to make it the most important incident
toward which all the other incidents converge.
Unity.
The choice of a main incident will determine what incidents to
exclude. The world is full of incidents--enough to make volumes more
than we now have. A phonograph and a camera could gather enough any
day at a busy corner in a city to fill a volume; yet these pictures
and these bits of conversation, interesting as each in itself might
be, would not be a unit,--not one story, but many. Few persons,
indeed, would write anything so disjointed as the report made by this
phonograph; yet good writers are often led astray by the brilliancy of
their own ideas. They have so many good stories on hand which they
would like to tell, that they force some of them into their present
story, and so spoil two stories. In the very popular "David Harum," it
would puzzle any one to know why the author has introduced the ladies
from the city and the musical party at the lake. The episode is good
enough in itself; but in this story it has not a shadow of excuse.
There is a phrase of Kipling's that should ring in every
story-teller's ears. Not once only, but a number of times, this prince
of modern story-tellers catches himself--almost too late
sometimes--and writes, "But that is another story." One incident calls
up another; paragraph follows paragraph naturally. It is easy enough
to look back and trace the road by which the writer arrived at his
present position; yet it would be very hard to tell why he came
hither, or to see how the journey up to this point will at all put him
toward his destination. He has digressed; he has left the road. And he
must get back to the road. By this digression he has wasted just as
much time as it has taken to come from the direct road to this point
added to the time it will take to go back. Do not digress; tell one
story at a time; let no incident into your story which cannot answer
the question, "Why are you here?" by "I help;" keep your eye on the
main incident; things which do not unquestionably contribute something
to the main incident should be excluded.
Introductions and Conclusions.
The choice of the main incident towards which all other incidents
converge will rid compositions of worthless introductions and trailing
conclusions. A story should get under way at once; and any
explanations at the beginning, the introduction of long descriptions
or tedious paragraphs of "fine writing," will be headed off if the
pupil keeps constantly in mind that it must all lead directly toward
the main incident. Again, if everything converges to the main
incident, when that has been told the story is finished. After that
there must be no explanations, no moralizing, nothing. When the story
has been told it is a good rule to stop.
An excellent example of a short story well told is "An Incident of the
French Camp," by Robert Browning. Only the absolutely necessary has
been introduced. The incidents flash before the reader. Nothing can be
said after the last line. "Hervé Riel" is a vivid piece of narrative
too. Such an exhibition of manliness appeals to all. Was it necessary
to attach the last stanza? If this poem needed it, why not the other?
If the story has no moral in it, no man can tie it on; if there is
one, the reader should be accounted intelligent enough to find it
without any help.
Tedious Enumerations.
Making all the incidents converge to one main incident will avoid
tiresome enumerations of inconsequential events, which frequently fill
the compositions of young pupils. Such essays generally start with "a
bright, clear morning," and "a party of four of us." After recounting
a dozen events of no consequence whatever, "we came home to a late
supper, well repaid for our day's outing." These compositions may be
quite correct in the choice of words, sentences, and paragraphs, and
with it all be flat. There is nothing to them; they get the reader
nowhere. Pick out one of the many incidents. Work it up. Turn back to
the paragraph from Stevenson and notice how little there is to it when
reduced to bare outline. He has worked it up so that it is good.
Always remember that a short anecdote well told is worth pages of
aimless enumeration.
What to include.
The selection of the main incident will guide in determining what to
include; for every detail must be included that is necessary to make
the main incident possible. A young pupil wrote of a party in the
woods. The girls had found pleasant seats in a car and were chatting
about their friends, when they felt a sudden lurch, and soon one of
the party was besmeared by slippery, sticky whites of eggs. Now, if
eggs were in the habit of clinging to the roofs of cars and breaking
at unfortunate moments, there would be no need of any explanation; but
as the cook forgot to boil the eggs and the girl had put them up into
the rack herself, some of this should have been told. Enough at least
should be told to make the main incident a possibility. Stories are
full of surprises, but they can be understood easily from the
preceding incidents; or else the new element is one that happens
frequently, and of itself is nothing new. In the paragraph from
Stevenson, the entrance of the "prim, little old maid" is a surprise,
but it is a very common thing for ladies to walk upon a public
highway. Any surprise must be natural,--the result of causes at work
in the story, or of circumstances which are always occurring and by
themselves no surprises. If the story be a tangled web of incidents
culminating in some horror, as the death of the beautiful young wife
in Hawthorne's "Birthmark," all the events must be told that are
necessary to carry the reader from the first time he beholds her
beauty until he sees her again, her life ebbing away as the fairy hand
fades from her cheek. In "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" it would be
impossible to pass directly from the sweet boy of the first chapter to
the little liar of the last; something must be told of those miserable
days that intervene, and their telling effect on the little fellow. So
a reader could not harmonize his idea of old Scrooge gained in the
first chapter with generous Mr. Scrooge of the last without the
intermediate chapters. Keeping the main incident in mind, include all
that is necessary to make it possible.
Consistency.
This same rule more than any other will make a story consistent. If
incidents are chosen with relation to the one main incident, they will
all have a common quality; they can scarcely be inconsistent. It is
much more essential that a story be consistent than that it be a fact.
Indeed, facts are not necessary in stories, and they are dangerous.
Ian Maclaren says that the only part of his stories that has been
severely criticised is a drowning episode, which was a fact, and the
only one he ever used. Yet to those who have read "The Bonnie Brier
Bush," the old doctor is as well known as any person who lives across
the street; he is real to us, though he never lived. "Old Scrooge" and
"Brom Bones" are better known than John Adams is. A good character or
a good story need not be drawn from facts. Indeed, in literature as in
actual life, facts are stubborn things, and will not accommodate
themselves to new surroundings. Make the story consistent; be not too
careful about the facts.
A story may be good and be entirely contrary to all known facts. "The
Ugly Duckling" is as true as Fiske's "History of the United States,"
and every whit as consistent. "Alice in Wonderland" is an excellent
story; yet it contains no facts. The introduction of a single fact
would ruin the story; for between the realm of fact and the region of
fancy is a great gulf fixed, and no man has successfully crossed it.
Whatever conditions of life and action are assumed in one part of a
story must be continued throughout. If walruses talk and hens are
reasonable in one part of the story, to reduce them to every-day
animals would be ruinous. Consistency, that the parts stand together,
that the story seem probable,--this is more essential than facts. And
to gain this consistency the surest rule is to test the material by
its relation to the main incident.
The choice of the main incident, then, will determine to a great
degree what to exclude and what to include; it will assist in ridding
compositions of countless enumerations, aimless wanderings, and flat
endings; it will help the writer to get started, and insure a stop
when the story is told; and it will give to the story the quality most
essential for its success, consistency.
An Actor as the Storyteller.
There is yet another condition that enters into the selection of
materials: it makes a difference who tells the story. If the story be
told in the first person, that is, if one of the actors tell the
story, he cannot be supposed to know all that the other persons do
when out of sight and hearing, nor can he know what they think. To
take an illustration from a pupil's essay. A girl took her baby sister
out upon the lake in a rowboat. A violent storm arose, lashing the
lake into a fury. The oars were wrenched from her hands. Helpless on
the water, how was she to be saved? Here the essayist recited an
infinite amount of detail about the distress at home, giving the
conversation and the actions. These things she could not have known in
the character she had assumed at the beginning, that of the chief
actor. All of that should have been excluded. When Stevenson tells of
the fight in the round house, though he knew what those old salts were
doing outside, matters of great interest to the reader, he does not
let David say anything except what he could see or hear, and a very
little of what he "learned afterwards." Stevenson knew well who was
telling the story; David is too good a story-teller to tell what he
could not know. In the pupil's essay and in "Kidnapped," all such
matters would have a direct bearing on the main incident; they could
be included without destroying the unity of the story. But they cannot
be included when the story is told by one of the actors.
The Omniscience of an Author.
Many stories, probably most stories, are told in the third person. In
this case the author assumes the position of an omniscient power who
knows everything that is done, said, or thought by the characters in
his story. Not only what happens in the next room, but what is thought
at the other side of the world, is comprehended in his omniscience.
This is the position assumed by Irving in "The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow," by Kipling in the series of stories included with "Wee Willie
Winkie," by Scott in "Marmion," and by most great novelists.
Omniscience is, however, a dangerous prerogative for a young person.
The power is so great that the person who has but recently come into
possession of it becomes dizzy with it and uncertain in his movements.
A young person knows what he would do under certain conditions; but to
be able to know what some other person would do and think under a
certain set of circumstances requires a sure knowledge of character,
and the capability of assuming entirely different and unaccustomed
points of view. It is much safer for the beginner to take the point of
view of one of the actors, and tell the story in the first person.
Then when the grasp has become sure from this standpoint, he may
assume the more difficult role of the omniscient third person.
To sum up what has been said about the selection of materials: only
those materials should be admitted to a story which contribute to its
main incident, which are consistent with one another, and which could
have been known by the narrator.
The Climax.
When the materials for a story have been selected, the next
consideration is their arrangement. If the materials have been
selected to contribute to the main incident and converge toward it, it
will follow that _the main incident_ will come last in the story; it
_will be the climax_ towards which the several parts of the story are
directed. Moreover, it should be last, in order to retain the interest
of the reader up to that time. This is in accordance with the demands
of the second great principle of structure, Mass. An essay is well
massed if the parts are so arranged that things of importance will
arrest the attention. In literature to be read, to arrest the
attention is almost equivalent to catching the eye. The positions that
catch the eye, whether in sentence, paragraph, or essay, are the
beginning and the end. Were it not for another element which enters
into the calculation, these positions would be of nearly equal
importance. Since, however, the mind retains the most vivid impression
of the thing it received last, the impression of the end of the
sentence, paragraph, or essay is stronger than the impression made by
its beginning. The climax of a story should come at the end, both
because it is the result of preceding incidents, and because by this
position it receives the additional emphasis due to its position.
Who? Where? When? Why?
The beginning is the position of second importance. What, then, shall
stand in this place? A story resembles a puzzle. The solution of the
puzzle is given at the end; the thing of next importance is the
conditions of the puzzle. In "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" the story
culminates in the surprise of a devoted mother when she discovers that
her boy is a secretive little liar, who now deserves to be called
"Black Sheep." This is the end; what was the beginning,--the
conditions necessary to bring about this deplorable result? First,
they were _the persons;_ second, _the place;_ third, _the time._ In
many stories there is introduced the reason for telling the story.
These conditions, answering the questions Who? Where? When? and Why?
are all, or some of them, introduced at the beginning of any
narrative, and as soon as it can be done, they ought all to be given.
In a short essay, they are in the first paragraph; in a novel, in the
first chapters. In "Marmion" the time, the place, and the principal
character are introduced into the first canto. So Irving begins "The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow" with the place and time, then follow the
characters. In all stories the beginning is occupied in giving the
conditions of the story; that is, the principal characters, the time,
and the place.
In what Order?
Having the end and the beginning clearly in mind, the next question is
how best to get from one to the other. Shall the incidents be arranged
in order of time? or shall other considerations govern? If it be any
narrative of the journal form, whether a diary or a biography, the
chronological arrangement will direct the sequence of events. Again,
if it be a simple story with a single series of events, the time order
will prevail. If, however, it be a narrative which contains several
series of events, as a history or a novel, it may be wise, even
necessary, to deviate from the time sequence. It would have been
unwise for Scott to hold strictly to the order of time in "Marmion;"
after introducing the principal character, giving the time and the
setting, it was necessary for him to bring in another element of the
plot, Constance, and to go backward in time to pick up this thread of
the story. The really essential order in any narrative is the order of
cause and effect. As causes precede effects, the causal order and the
time order generally coincide. In a single series of events, that is,
where one cause alone produces an effect, which in turn becomes the
cause of another effect, the time order is the causal order. In a
novel, or a short story frequently, where there are more than one
series of incidents contributing to and converging towards the main
incident, these causes must all be introduced before the effect, and
may break the chronological order of the story. In "Roger Malvin's
Burial," it would be impossible to tell what the stricken father was
doing and what the joyous mother was thinking at the same time.
Hawthorne must leave one and go to the other until they meet in their
awful desolation. The only rule that can be given is, introduce causes
before effects. In all stories, short or long, this will result in an
approximation to the order of time; in a simple story it will
invariably give a time sequence.
There is one exception to this rule which should be noted. It is
necessary at the very beginning to have some incident that will arrest
the attention. This does not mean that persons, place, and time shall
not come first. They shall come first, but they shall be so introduced
as to make an interesting opening to the story. The novels of some
decades ago did not sufficiently recognize the principle. One can
frequently hear it said of Scott's stories, "I can't get started with
them; they are too dry." The introductory chapters are often
uninteresting. So much history is introduced, so much scenery is
described before the author sets out his characters; and all this is
done before he begins the story. Novelists of to-day realize that they
must interest the reader at the beginning; when they have caught him,
they are quite certain that he will bear with them while they bring up
the other divisions of the story, which now have become interesting
because they throw light on what has already been told. Even more than
novelists, dramatists recognize this principle. When the curtain rises
on the first act, something interesting is going on. The action
frequently begins far along in the time covered by the story; then by
cleverly arranged conversation all circumstances before the time of
the opening that are necessary to the development of the plot are
introduced. The audience receives these minor yet essential details
with no impatience, since they explain in part a situation already
interesting. The time order may be broken in order to introduce at the
beginning of the story some interesting situation which will
immediately engage the reader's attention.
In arranging the materials of a story, the main considerations are
Mass and Coherence. Mass demands important matters at the beginning
and at the end of a story. Coherence demands that events closely
related shall stand close together: that an effect shall immediately
follow its cause. Beginning with some interesting situation that will
also introduce the principal characters, the time, and the setting,
the story follows in the main the order of time, and concludes with
the main incident.
An Outline.
One practical suggestion will assist in arranging the parts of a
story. Use an outline. It will guard against the omission of any
detail that may afterward be found necessary, and against the
necessity of offering the apology, inexcusable in prepared work, of
"forgetting to say;" it will help the writer to see the best
arrangement of the parts, to know that causes have preceded effects.
The outline in narration should not be too much in detail, nor should
it be followed if, as the story progresses, new light comes and the
writer sees a better way to proceed. The writer should be above the
outline, not its slave; but the outline is a most valuable servant of
the writer.
Movement.
_Movement is an essential quality of narrative;_ a story must advance.
This does not mean that the story shall always go at the same rate,
though it does mean that it shall always go. If a story always had the
rapidity and intensity of a climax, it would be intolerable. Music
that is all rushing climaxes is unbearable; a picture must not be a
glare of high lights. The quiet passages in music, the grays and low
tones in the background of the picture, the slow chapters in a story,
are as necessary as their opposites; indeed, climaxes are dependent on
contrasts in order to be climaxes.
Rapidity.
The question of movement resolves itself into these two: how is
rapidity of movement obtained, and how can the writer delay the
movement. Rapidity is gained by the omission of all unnecessary
details, and the use of the shortest, tersest sentences to express the
absolutely essential. Dependent clauses disappear; either the
sentences are simple, just one sharp statement, or they are made of
coördinate clauses with no connectives. Every weight that could clog
the story is thrown away, and it runs with the swiftness of the
thought. At such a time it would be a waste of good material to
introduce beautiful descriptions or profound philosophy. Such things
would be skipped by the reader. Everything must clear the way for the
story.
Slowness.
What has been said of rapidity will indicate the answer to the second
question. Slowness of movement is obtained by introducing long
descriptions, analyses of characters, and information regarding the
history or customs of the time. Sentences become long and involved;
dependent clauses abound; connective words and phrases are frequent.
Needless details may be introduced until the story becomes wearisome;
it has almost no movement.
Very closely connected with what has been said above is another fact
concerning movement. Strip the sentences as you may, there are still
the verbs remaining. Verbs and derivatives from verbs are the words
which denote action. If other classes of words be taken out, the ratio
of verbs to the other words in the sentence is larger. Shorter
sentences and an increased ratio of verbs mark the passages in which
the movement is more rapid. In "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" the sentences
average twenty-five words in the slower parts; in the intenser
paragraphs the sentences have an average of fifteen words. Poe's
"Gold-Bug" changes from thirty-eight to twenty-one. Again, Stevenson's
essays have a verb to eight words, while the fight at the round house
has a verb to about five and a half words. One of Kipling's stories
starts in with a verb to eight and a half words, and the climax has a
verb in every four words. These figures mean that as the sentences are
shortened, adjectives, adverbs, phrases, connectives, disappear.
Everything not absolutely necessary is thrown away when the passage is
to express rapid movement.
No person should think that, by eliminating all dependent clauses,
cutting away all unnecessary matters, and putting in a verb to every
four words, he can gain intensity of expression. These are only
accompanying circumstances. Climaxes are in the thought. When the
thought moves rapidly, when things are being done with a rush, when
the climax has been reached, then the writer will find that he can
approach the movement of the thought most nearly by using these means.
Description and Narration.
_A valuable accessory to narration is description;_ in truth,
description for its own sake is not frequently found. The story must
be somewhere; and it is more real when we know in what kind of a place
it occurs. Still it is not wise to do as Scott so often has
done,--give chapters of description at the beginning of the story.
Rather the setting should be scattered through the story so that it is
hardly perceptible. At no time should the reader halt and realize that
he is being treated to a description. Even in the beautiful
descriptions by Stevenson quoted in the next chapter, the work is so
intimately blended with the story that the reader unfortunately might
pass over it. A large part of the pleasure derived from the best
stories is supplied by good descriptions, giving a vivid picture of
the setting of the story.
Description has another use in narration beside giving the setting of
the story; it is often used to accent the mood of the action. In "The
Fall of the House of Usher" by Poe, much of the gloomy foreboding is
caused by the weird descriptions. Hawthorne understood well the
harmony between man's feelings and his surroundings. The Sylvan Dance
in "The Marble Faun" is wonderfully handled. Irving, in "The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow," throws about the story a "witching influence," and
long before the Headless Horseman appears, the reader is quite sure
that the region abounds in "ghosts and goblins," dwelling in its
"haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted
houses." The danger in the use of description for this purpose is in
overdoing it. The fact is, as Arlo Bates says, "the villains no longer
steal through smiling gardens whose snowy lilies, all abloom, and
sending up perfume like incense from censers of silver, seem to rebuke
the wicked." Yet when handled as Stevenson and Irving handled it,
description assists in accenting the mood of the action.
Characters few, Time short.
_The number of characters should be few_ and the time of the action
short. Pupils are not able to handle a large number of persons. There
is, however, a stronger reason for it than incapacity. A young person
would have great trouble in remembering the large number of persons
introduced into "Little Dorrit." Many of them would always remain
entire strangers. Such a scattering of attention is unfavorable to a
story. To focus the interest upon a few, to have the action centred in
these few, increases the movement and intensity of the narrative. The
writers of short stories in France (perhaps the best story-tellers of
the present), Kipling, Davis, Miss Wilkins, and some others of our
best authors, find few characters all that are necessary, and they
gain in intensity by limiting the number of characters.
For the same reason _the time should be short._ If all the incidents
chosen are crowded into a short period of time, the action must be
more rapid. The reader does not like to know five years have elapsed
between one event and the next, even if the story-teller does not try
to fill up the interim with matters of no consequence to the
narrative. One exception must be made to this rule. In stories whose
purpose is to portray a change of character, a long time is necessary;
for the transformation is not usually the result of a day's
experience, but a gradual process of years. "Silas Marner" and "Baa,
Baa, Black Sheep" demand time to make naturally the great changes
recounted. In general, however, the time should be short.
Simple Plot.
Moreover, _the plot should be simple._ This is not saying that the
plot should be evident. No one is quite satisfied if he knows just how
the story will turn out. There are, however, so many conditions in a
story that the accentuation of one or the subordination of another may
bring about something quite unexpected, yet perfectly natural.
Complicated plots have had their day; simple plots are now in vogue.
They are as natural as life, and quite as unfathomable. In Davis's
"Gallegher" there is nothing complicated; one thing follows another in
a perfectly natural way; yet there are many questions in the reader's
mind as to how the little rascal will turn out, and whether he will
accomplish his mission. Much more cleverness is shown by the
sleight-of-hand trickster, who, unassisted and in the open, with no
accessories, dupes his staring assembly, than by him who, on the
stage, with the aid of mirrors, lights, machines, and a crowd of
assistants, manages to deceive your eyes. A story that by its frank
simplicity takes the reader into its confidence, and brings him to a
conclusion that is so natural that it should have been foreseen from
the beginning, has a good plot. The conclusion of a story must be
natural,--the result of the causes at work in the story. It must be an
expected surprise. If it cannot be accounted for by the causes at work
in the story, the construction is faulty. In the world of fiction
there is not the liberty one experiences in the world of fact. There
things unexpected and unexplainable occur. But the story-teller has no
such privilege. Truth is stranger than fiction dare be. A simple,
natural story, with few characters and covering but a short period of
time, has three elements of success.
Paragraph structure, sentence structure, and choice of words are taken
up in subsequent chapters. Of paragraphs it may be wise to say that
there will be as many as there are divisions in the outline; and
sometimes, by reason of the length of topic, a subdivision may be
necessary. The paragraph most common in narration is the paragraph of
details, the first form presented in the chapter on paragraphs. What
needs to be said of sentences has already been said when treating of
movement. Of words one thing may be suggested. Choose live words,
specific words, words that have "go" in them.
It should be remembered that everything cannot be learned at once. The
study of the whole is the principal occupation just now. Select the
main incident; choose other incidents to be consistent with it; start
out at once giving the conditions of the story; proceed now fast, now
slow, as the thought demands, arriving at a conclusion that is an
expected surprise, the result of forces at work in the story.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
The questions are only suggestive. They indicate how literature can be
made to teach composition. Some questions may seem hard, and will
provoke discussion. To have even a false opinion, backed by only a few
facts, is better than an entire absence of thought. Encourage
discussion. The answers to the questions have not been suggested in
the questions themselves. The object has been to throw the pupil upon
his own thinking.
These questions upon the "Method of the Author" should not be
considered until the far more important work of deriving the "Meaning
of the Author" has been finished. Only after the whole piece has been
carefully studied can the relation of the parts to the whole be
understood. Reserve the questions for the review.
QUESTIONS.
THE GREAT STONE FACE.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 40.)
In what paragraphs is the main incident?
Can you find one sentence on the second page of the story that
foreshadows the result?
How many incidents or episodes contribute to the story?
Do these help in the development of Ernest's character? If not, what
is the use of them?
Why are they arranged in this order?
Introduce into its proper place an incident of a scientist. Write it
up.
Do you think one of the incidents could be omitted? Which one?
Are the incidents related in the order in which they occurred? Is one
the cause of another?
Has the story a plot? Why do you think so? What is a plot?
Where are introduced the time, place, and the principal character?
What is the use of the description of "the great stone face"?
Why does the author tell only what "was reported" of the interior of
Mr. Gathergold's palace? Is it better so?
Are the descriptions to accent the mood of the story? or are they
primarily to make concrete and real the persons and places?
Is there any place where the movement of the story is rapid?
Does the author begin at once, and close when the story is told?
Did you find any use of comparisons in the piece? (See top of p. 6,
top of p. 19, middle of p. 22.)[3]
Of what value are they in composition?
THE GENTLE BOY.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 145.)
What is the main incident?
In relation to the whole story, in what place does it stand?
Do the other incidents serve to develop the character of "the gentle
boy"? or are they introduced to open up to the reader that character?
(Compare with "Wee Willie Winkie.")
Do you consider all the incidents necessary?
Why has the author introduced the fact that Ilbrahim gently cared for
the little boy who fell from the tree?
What is the use of the first two pages of the story?
Where does the story really begin?
How could you know the time, if the first page were not there? Is it a
delicate way of telling "when"?
Notice that time, place, and principal characters all are introduced
into the first paragraph of the real story.
Why does the author note the change in Tobias's circumstances? Does it
add to the interest of the story? Would you omit it?
Do you think this plot more complicated than that of "The Great Stone
Face"?
What is the use of the description on p. 31?
What do you note as the difference between
(a) second line of p. 19, sixth line of p. 27, sixteenth line of p.
29, and (b) fourth line of p. 25, the figure in the complete paragraph
on p. 40?
THE GRAY CHAMPION.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 145.)
Note the successive stages by which the time is approached. (Compare
with the beginning of "Silas Marner.")
Can you feel any difference between the movement of this story and the
movement in "The Gentle Boy"?
Is there any difference in the length of the sentences? (Remember that
the independent clauses of a compound sentence are very nearly the
same as simple sentences.)
Is there any difference in the proportion of verbs and verbals? What
parts of speech have almost disappeared?
ROGER MALVIN'S BURIAL.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 145.)
Why is the first paragraph needed?
Why could the incident in the first paragraph on p. 50 not be omitted?
Do you find it later?
How many chapters could you divide the story into? What is the basis
of division?
Why did not Hawthorne tell the result of the shot at once?
A plot is usually made by introducing more than one cause, by hiding
one of the causes, or by holding back an effect. Which in this story?
Is there a change of movement between the beginning and the end of the
story? Look at the last two pages carefully. How has the author
expressed the intensity of the situation?
Does the story end when it is finished?
THE WEDDING KNELL.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 145.)
Of the three common ways of giving uncertainty to a plot, which has
been used?
Do you call this plot more complicated than those of the other tales
studied?
Why does the author say, at the top of p. 72, "necessary preface"?
Could it not be omitted? If not, what principle of narrative
construction would be violated by its omission?
Why has he introduced the last paragraph on p. 74 reaching over to p.
75?
THE AMBITIOUS GUEST.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 40.)
In what order are the elements of the story introduced?
Pick out phrases which prepare you for the catastrophe.
Can you detect any difference in the movement of the different parts
of the story? What aids its expression?
THE GOLD-BUG.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 120.)
Would you have been satisfied if the story had stopped when the
treasure was discovered? What more do you want to know?
What, then, is the main incident? Was the main incident the last to
occur in order of time? Why did Poe delay telling it until the end?
Do you see how relating the story in the first person helped him to
throw the main incident last? Why could he not tell it before?
Does Poe tell any other stories in the first person?
In what person are "Treasure Island" and "Kidnapped" told? Are they
interesting?
If a friend is telling you a story, do you care more for it if it is
about a third party or about himself? Why?
What, then, is the advantage of making an actor the narrator? What are
some of the disadvantages?
Do you think this plot as good as those of Hawthorne's stories?
Why was it necessary to have "a day of remarkable chilliness" (p. 3),
and a Newfoundland dog rushing into the room (p. 6)?
What principle would it violate to omit these little matters?
(Text-book, p. 24.)
What of the rapidity of movement when they are digging? How has
rapidity been gained?
What form of wit does Poe attempt? Does he succeed?
Do you think the conversation is natural? If not, what is the matter
with it?
Are negroes usually profane? Does Jupiter's general character lead you
to expect profanity from him? Is anything gained by his oaths? Is
anything sacrificed? In this story is profanity artistic? (To know
what is meant by "artistic," read the last line of "L'Envoi" on p. 253
of the text-book.)
THE VISION OF SIR LAUNFAL.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 30.)
What is the purpose of the first stanza?
What connection in thought is there between the second, third, and
fourth stanzas? What have these stanzas to do with the story? If they
have nothing to do with it, what principle of structure do they
violate? Would Lowell be likely to do this?
What is the use of the description beginning "And what is so rare as a
day in June"?
Would the story be complete without the preludes? Would the teaching
be understood without them?
Are time and place definitely stated in the poem? Why should they be,
or not be?
Why does so much time elapse between Part I. and Part II. of the
story?
In what lines do you find the main incident?
In the first prelude is Lowell describing a landscape of New England
or Old England? Where is the story laid? What comment have you to make
upon these facts?
Pick out the figures. Are they useful?
Can you find passages of exposition and description in this narrative?
Why do you call it narration?
What is Lowell's criticism upon himself? (See "Fable for Critics.")
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 57.)
Is the opening such as to catch the attention?
What is the essential idea in the description of Scrooge? Do all
details enforce this idea? Do you know Scrooge?
In what paragraph does Dickens tell where the story occurs?
Find places on p. 19 and p. 96 where Dickens has used "in" or "into."
What advantage to the story is the appearance in Scrooge's office of
his nephew and the two gentlemen? Do they come into the story again?
Are the details in the description of the apparition on p. 41 in the
order in which they would be noted? Which is the most important
detail? Where is it in the description?
Is the description of Mrs. Fezziwig on p. 52 successful?
What helps express rapidity of movement in the paragraph at the bottom
of p. 53? (See also paragraph on p. 85.)
Examining the words used by Dickens and Hawthorne, which are longer?
Which are most effectual? Are you sure? Rewrite one of Hawthorne's
paragraphs with a Dickens vocabulary. What is the result?
What word is the topic of the last paragraph on p. 73?
Recast the first sentence of the last paragraph on p. 77.
Does Dickens use slang? (Do not consider conversation in the answer to
this question.)
What is the main incident? Is there one of the minor incidents that
could be omitted?
Which one could you most easily spare?
What is the need of the last chapter?
MARMION.
(Rolfe's Student's Series, Vol. 2.)
How do you know the time of "Marmion"?
Do you see any reason why stanza vi. of Canto I. would better precede
stanza v.?
Where is the first mention of De Wilton? the first intimation of Clara
de Clare? of Constance?
What form of discourse in stanza vii. of Canto II.?
What part in the development of the narrative does Fitz-Eustace's song
make?
Does the tale related by the host break the unity of the whole? Is it
"another story"? What value has it?
Why does Scott not tell of Marmion's encounter with the Elfin Knight
in Canto III.? Where is it told? Why there?
Why is Canto II. put after Canto I.? Did the events related in II.
occur after those related in I.?
How many of the descriptions of persons in "Marmion" begin with the
face? How many times are they of the face only?
Try to write the incident related in stanzas xix., xx., xxi., and
xxii. of Canto III. in fewer words than Scott has done it without
sacrificing any detail.
Are you satisfied with the description of King James in stanza viii.
Canto V.? Do you see him?
Write an outline of the plot of "Marmion" in two hundred words.
Why is the story of Lady Clare reserved until Canto V.?
What cantos contain the main incident?
Were all that precedes omitted, would "The Battle" be as interesting?
Do you think the plot good? Is it complicated?
What of the number of figures used in the last canto compared with
those used in any other canto? Do you find more in narrative or
descriptive passages? Why?
Read stanza viii. Canto III. Can you describe a voice without using
comparison?
Do the introductions to the several cantos form any part of the story?
Would they be just as good anywhere else? Would the story be better
with them, or without them? What principle of structure do they
violate?
EXERCISES.
The subjects for composition given below are not intended as a course
to be followed, but only to suggest a plan for the work. The
individual topics for essays may not be the best for all cases. Long
lists of topics can be found in rhetorics. Bare subjects, however, are
usually unsuggestive. They should be adapted to the class. Put the
subjects in such shape that there is something to get hold of. Give
the pupils a fair start.
1-4. In order to place before the pupils good models for constructing
stories, read one like "A Piece of String" in "An Odd Number," by
Maupassant. Stories for this purpose should not be long. Talk the
story over with the pupils, bringing out clearly the main incident and
the several episodes which contribute to it. Have them notice how
characters, time, and place are introduced; and how each succeeding
event is possible and natural. Then have it rewritten. This will fix
the idea of plan. For this purpose some of Miss Wilkins's stories are
excellent; Kenneth Grahame's "The Golden Age," and Miss Jewett's short
stories are good material. Some of the short stories in current
magazines serve well.
5, 6. Read the first of a story and its close,--enough to indicate the
main incident and the setting of the story. Have the pupils write it
complete.
7. Read the close of a story. The pupils will then write the whole.
8. Read the opening of a story. Have the pupils complete it.
9. Finish "The Circus-Man's Story" (Text-book, p. 297.)
10. My First Algebra Lesson. Remember that in composition a good story
is worth more than a true one. The basis may be a fact. Do not
hesitate to fix it up.
11. A delivery horse runs away. No persons are in the wagon. Tell
about it.
12. Write about a runaway in which you and your little sister are
injured. (I have found it very helpful to use the same subject, but
having the relation of the narrator to the incident very different. It
serves to bring out a whole new vocabulary in order to express the
difference in the feelings of the narrator.)
13. Write the story suggested to your mind by these words: Digging in
the sand I found a board much worn by the waves, on which were cut, in
characters scarcely traceable, these words: "Dec.----18 9, N. J."
14. A humorous incident in a street car, in which the joke was on the
other fellow.
15. Another in which the joke was on me. The same incident may be used
with good effect. The choice of new words to express the difference of
feelings makes an excellent exercise.
16. Tell the story that Doreas related to her neighbors about her
husband's escape and her father's death.
17. To bring out the fact that the language must be varied to suit the
character of the reader or listener, tell a fairy story to a sleepy
five-year old so that he will not go to sleep. Do not hesitate at
exaggerations. Only remember it must be consistent.
18. Have "The Gentle Boy" tell one of the incidents in which he was
cruelly treated. This may well be an incident of your own life adapted
to its purpose.
19, 20. Jim was a mean boy. Meanness seemed to be in his blood. He was
all mean. His hair was mean; his freckles were mean; his big, chapped
hands were mean. And he was always mean. He was mean to his pets; he
was meaner to small boys; and he was as mean as he dared to be to his
equals in size.
Write one incident to show Jim's meanness.
Write another to show how Jim met his match, and learned a lesson.
21. Work up the following into a story. It all occurs in one day at
the present time. Place, your own city. Characters, a poor sewing
girl, her little sick brother, and a wealthy society lady. Incidents:
a conversation between brother and sister about some fruit; a
conversation between the sewing girl and the lady about money due for
sewing; stealing apples; arrest; appearance of the lady. Title: Who
was the Criminal?
22. A story of a modern Sir Launfal.
23. The most thrilling moment of my life.
24. Tell the whole story suggested by the stanza of "A Nightingale in
the Study," by Lowell, which begins, "Cloaked shapes, a twanging of
guitars."
25. Write a story which teaches a lesson. Remember that the lesson is
in the story, not at its end.
In the work at this time but little attention can be given to the
teaching of paragraphs and sentences. The pupil should learn what a
paragraph is, and should have his composition properly divided into
paragraphs. But the form and massing of paragraphs cannot be taken up
at this time. The same may be said of sentences. He should have no
sentences broken in two by periods; nor should he have two sentences
forced into one. Grammatical errors should be severely criticised.
However, the present work is to get the pupils started; and they
cannot get started if there is a teacher holding them back by
discouraging criticisms. Mark all mistakes of whatever kind; but put
the stress upon the whole composition: its unity, its coherence, its
mass, and its movement. Everything cannot be done at once; many
distressing faults will have to be passed over until later.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV
DESCRIPTION
Difficulties of Language for making Pictures.
Description has been defined as the form of literature which presents
a picture by means of language. In the preceding chapter, it has been
pointed out that the sequence of language is perfectly adapted to
detail the sequence of action in a narrative. For the purpose of
constructing a picture, the means has serious drawbacks. The picture
has to be presented in pieces; and the difficulties are much as would
be experienced if "dissected maps and animals" used for children's
amusement were to be put together in the head. It would not be easy to
arrange the map of the United States from blocks, each containing a
small part of it, taken one at a time from a box. Yet this closely
resembles the method language forces us to adopt in constructing a
picture. Each phrase is like one of the blocks, and introduces a new
element into the picture; from these phrases the reader must
reconstruct the whole. This means not alone that he shall remember
them all, but there is a more serious trouble: he must often rearrange
them. For example, a description by Ruskin begins, "Nine years old."
Either a boy or a girl, the reader thinks, as it may be in his own
home. In the case of this reader it is a boy, rather tall of his age,
with brown hair and dark eyes. But the next phrase reads, "Neither
tall nor short for her age." Now the reader knows it is a girl of
common stature. Later on he learns that her eyes are "deep blue;" her
lips "perfectly lovely in profile;" and so on through the details of
the whole sketch. Many times in the course of the description the
reader makes up a new picture; he is continually reconstructing. Any
one who will observe his own mind while reading a new description can
prove that the picture is arranged and rearranged many times. This is
due to the means by which it is presented. Language presents only a
phrase at a time,--a fragment, not a whole,--and so fails in the
instantaneous presentation of a complete picture.
Painting and Sculpture.
The painter or sculptor who upon canvas or in stone flashes the whole
composition before us at the same instant of time, has great
advantages over the worker in words. In these methods there is needed
no reconstruction of previous images, no piecing together of a number
of fragments. Without any danger of mistakes which will have to be
corrected later, the spectator can take in the whole picture at
once,--every relation, every color, every difference in values.
It is because pictures are the surest and quickest means of
representing objects to the mind that books, especially text-books,
and magazines are so profusely illustrated. No magazine can claim
popularity to-day that does not use illustrations where possible; no
text-book in science or history sells unless it contains pictures. And
this is because all persons accurately and quickly get the idea from a
picture.
Advantages of Language.
Whatever be the disadvantages of language, there are some advantages.
Who could paint this from Hawthorne?
"Soon the smoke ascended among the trees, impregnated with
_savory incense,_ not _heavy, dull,_ and _surfeiting,_ like
the steam of cookery indoors, but _sprightly_ and _piquant._
The _smell_ of our feast was akin to the woodland odors with
which it mingled." ("Mosses from an Old Manse.")
Or this from Lowell?--
"Under the yaller-pines I house,
When sunshine makes 'em all _sweet-scented,_
An' _hear_ among their furry boughs
The _baskin'_ west wind _purr contented,_
While 'way o'erhead, ez _sweet_ an' _low
Ez distant bells thet ring for meetin',_
The wedged wil' geese _their bugles blow,_
Further an' further South retreatin'."[4]
Or cut this from marble?--
"O mother Ida, many-fountained Ida,
Dear mother Ida, hearken ere I die.
For now the noonday quiet holds the hill;
The grasshopper is silent in the grass;
The lizard, with his shadow on the stone,
Rests like a shadow, and the winds are dead.
The purple flower droops; the golden bee
Is lily-cradled; I alone awake.
My eyes are full of tears, my heart of love,
My heart is breaking, and my eyes are dim,
And I am all aweary of my life."[5]
The painter cannot put sounds upon a canvas, nor can the sculptor
carve from marble an odor or a taste. We use the other senses in
determining qualities of objects; and words which describe effects
produced by other senses beside sight are valuable in description. As
Lowell says, "we may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing" a
large number of beautiful things. Moreover, language suggests hidden
ideas that the representative arts cannot so well do. The following
from a "Song" by Lowell has in it suggestions which the picture could
not present.
"Violet! sweet violet!
Thine eyes are full of tears;
Are they wet
Even yet
With the thought of other years?
Or with gladness are they full,
For the night so beautiful,
And longing for those far-off spheres?
"Thy little heart, that hath with love
Grown colored like the sky above,
On which thou lookest ever,--
Can it know
All the woe
Of hope for what returneth never,
All the sorrow and the longing
To these hearts of ours belonging?"
Enumeration and Suggestion
Description, like narration, has two large divisions: one simply to
give information or instruction; the other to present a vivid picture.
One is _representative_ or _enumerative;_ the other, _suggestive._ One
may be illustrated by guide-books; the other by the descriptions of
Stevenson or Ruskin. And in the most artistic fashion the two have
been made to supplement each other in the following picture of "bright
and beautiful Athens" by Cardinal Newman. From the first, to the
sentence beginning "But what he would not think of," there is simply
an enumeration of features which a commercial agent might see; the
rest is what the artistic soul of the lover of beauty saw there. One
is enumeration; the other a gloriously suggestive picture.
"A confined triangle, perhaps fifty miles its greatest
length, and thirty its greatest breadth; two elevated rocky
barriers, meeting at an angle; three prominent mountains,
commanding the plain,--Parnes, Pentelicus, and Hymettus; an
unsatisfactory soil; some streams, not always full;--such is
about the report which the agent of a London company would
have made of Attica. He would report that the climate was
mild; the hills were limestone; there was plenty of good
marble; more pasture land than at first survey might have
been expected, sufficient, certainly, for sheep and goats;
fisheries productive; silver mines once, but long since
worked out; figs fair; oil first-rate; olives in profusion.
But what he would not think of noting down was that that
olive-tree was so choice in nature and so noble in shape
that it excited a religious veneration; and that it took so
kindly to the light soil as to expand into woods upon the
open plain, and to climb up and fringe the hills. He would
not think of writing word to his employers, how that clear
air, of which I have spoken, brought out, yet blended and
subdued, the colors on the marble, till they had a softness
and harmony, for all their richness, which in a picture
looks exaggerated, yet is after all within the truth. He
would not tell how that same delicate and brilliant
atmosphere freshened up the pale olive, till the olive
forgot its monotony, and its cheek glowed like the arbutus
or beech of the Umbrian hills. He would say nothing of the
thyme and the thousand fragrant herbs which carpeted
Hymettus; he would hear nothing of the hum of its bees; nor
take account of the rare flavor of its honey, since Gaza and
Minorca were sufficient for the English demand. He would
look over the Ægean from the height he had ascended; he
would follow with his eyes the chain of islands, which,
starting from the Sunian headland, seemed to offer the
fabled divinities of Attica, when they would visit their
Ionian cousins, a sort of viaduct thereto across the sea;
but that fancy would not occur to him, nor any admiration of
the dark violet billows with their white edges down below;
nor of those graceful, fan-like jets of silver upon the
rocks, which slowly rise aloft like water spirits from the
deep, then shiver, and break, and spread, and shroud
themselves, and disappear in a soft mist of foam; nor of the
gentle, incessant heaving and panting of the whole liquid
plain; nor of the long waves, keeping steady time, like a
line of soldiery as they resound upon the hollow shore,--he
would not deign to notice the restless living element at all
except to bless his stars that he was not upon it. Nor the
distinct details, nor the refined coloring, nor the graceful
outline and roseate golden hue of the jutting crags, nor the
bold shadows cast from Otus or Laurium by the declining
sun;--our agent of a mercantile firm would not value these
matters even at a low figure. Rather, we must turn for the
sympathy we seek to yon pilgrim student, come from a
semi-barbarous land to that small corner of the earth, as to
a shrine, where he might take his fill of gazing on those
emblems and coruscations of invisible unoriginate
perfection. It was the stranger from a remote province, from
Britain or from Mauritania, who in a scene so different from
that of his chilly, woody swamps, or of his fiery, choking
sands, learned at once what a real University must be, by
coming to understand the sort of country which was its
suitable home."[6]
Enumerative Description.
Enumerative description has one point of great difference from
suggestive description. In the former everything is told; in the
latter the description is as fortunate in what it omits as in what it
includes. Were an architect to give specifications for the building of
a house, every detail would have to be included; but after all the
pages of careful enumeration the reader would know less of how it
looked than after these few words from Irving. "A large, rickety
wooden building stood in its place, with great gaping windows, some of
them broken and mended with old hats and petticoats, and over the door
was painted 'The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle.'" So the manual
training student uses five hundred words to describe in detail a box
which would be thrown off with but a few words in a piece of
literature. In enumerative description, one element is of as much
importance as another; no special feature is made primary by the
omission or subdual of other qualities. It has value in giving exact
details of objects, as if for their construction, and in including an
object in a class.
Suggestive Description.
Suggestive description, description the aim of which is not
information, but the reproduction of a picture, is the kind most
employed in literature. To present a picture, not all the details
should be given. The mind cannot carry them all, and, much worse, it
cannot arrange them. Nor is there any need for a detailed enumeration.
A room has walls, floor, and ceiling; a man naturally has ears, arms,
and feet. These things may be taken for granted. It is not what is
common to a class that describes; it is what is individual, what takes
one object out of a class.
Value of Observation.
This leads to the suggestion that _good description depends largely on
accurate observation._ A selection frequently quoted, but none the
less valuable because often seen, is in point here. It is the last
word on the value of observation.
"Talent is long patience. It is a question of regarding
whatever one desires to express long enough and with
attention close enough to discover a side which no one has
seen and which has been expressed by nobody. In everything
there is something of the unexplored, because we are
accustomed to use our eyes only with the thought of what has
already been said concerning the thing we see. The smallest
thing has in it a grain of the unknown. Discover it. In
order to describe a fire that flames or a tree in the plain,
we must remain face to face with that fire or that tree
until for us they no longer resemble any other tree or any
other fire. This is the way to become original.
"Having, moreover, impressed upon me the fact that there are
not in the whole world two grains of sand, two insects, two
hands, or two noses absolutely alike, he forced me to
describe a being or an object in such a manner as to
individualize it clearly, to distinguish it from all other
objects of the same kind. 'When you pass,' he said to me, 'a
grocer seated in his doorway, a concierge smoking his pipe,
a row of cabs, show me this grocer and this concierge, their
attitude, all their physical appearance; suggest by the
skill of your image all their moral nature, so that I shall
not confound them with any other grocer or any other
concierge; make me see, by a single word, wherein a
cab-horse differs from the fifty others that follow or
precede him.'... Whatever may be the thing which one wishes
to say, there is but one word for expressing it; only one
verb to animate it, but one adjective to qualify it. It is
essential to search for this verb, for this adjective, until
they are discovered, and never to be satisfied with anything
else."[7]
The Point of View.
With the closest observation, an author gets into his own mind what he
wishes to present to another; but with this essential step taken, he
is only ready to begin the work of communication. For the successful
communication of a picture there are some considerations of value. And
first is _the point of view._ It has much the same relation to
description as the main incident has to narration. In large measure it
determines what to exclude and what to include. When a writer has
assumed his point of view, he must stay there, and tell not a thing
more than he can see from there. It would hardly be possible for a
man, telling only so much as he saw while gazing from Eiffel Tower
into the streets below, to say that the people looked like
Lilliputians and that their hands were dirty. To one lying on the bank
of a stream, it does not look like "a silver thread running through
the landscape." Things do not look the same when they are near as when
at a distance. This fact has been acted upon more by the modern school
of painting than ever before in art. Verboeckhoven painted sheep in a
marvelous way. The drawing is perfect, giving the animal to the life.
Still, no matter how far away the artist was standing, there are the
same marvelously painted tufts of wool, showing almost the individual
fibres. Tufts of wool were on the sheep, and made of fibres; but no
artist at twenty rods could see them. The new school gives only what
actually can be seen. Its first law is that each "shall draw the thing
as he sees it for the God of Things as They Are." Make no additions to
what you can actually see because, as a result of experience, you know
that there are some things not yet mentioned in your description; the
hands may be dirty, but the man on the tower cannot see the dirt.
Neither make an addition simply because it sounds well; the "silver
thread through the landscape" is beautiful, but, unfortunately, it is
not always true.
Not only does distance cut out details from a picture; the fact that
man sees in a straight line and not around a corner eliminates some
features. In describing a house, remember that as you stand across the
street from it, the back porch cannot be seen, neither can the
shrubbery in the back yard. A writer would not be justified in
speaking of a man's necktie, if the man he was describing were walking
in front of him. In enumerative description the inside of a box may be
told of; a man may be turned around, as it were; but to present a
picture, only one side can be described, just as it would be shown in
a photograph. Any addition to what can actually be known from the
point of view assumed by the author is a fault and a source of
confusion. Choose your point of view; stay there; and tell only what
is seen from that point.
Moving Point of View.
It has been said that the point of view should not be changed. This
requires one modification. It may be changed, if the reader is kept
informed of the changes. If a person wished to describe an interior,
he would be unable to see the whole from any one point of view. As he
passed from room to room he should inform his reader of his change of
position. Then the description, though a unit, is a combination of
several descriptions; just as the house is one, though made of
dining-room, sitting-rooms, bedrooms, and attic. This kind of
description is very common in books of travel, in which the author
tells what he sees in passing. The thing to be remembered in writing
this kind of description is to inform the reader where the author is
when he writes the different parts of the description,--to give the
points of view.
The Point of View should be stated.
The point of view, whether fixed or moving, should be made clear.
Either it should be definitely stated, or it should be suggested by
some phrase in the description. In the many examples which are quoted
in this chapter, it would be well to see what it is that gives the
point of view. The picture gains in distinctness when the point of
view is known. The following sentences are from "The Old Manse;" there
is no mistake here. The reader knows every move the author makes. It
opens with:--
"Between two tall gateposts of rough-hewn stone (the gate
itself having fallen from its hinges at some unknown epoch)
we beheld the gray front of the old parsonage terminating
the vista of an avenue of black ash-trees."
From the street the reader is taken to "the rear of the house," where
there was "the most delightful little nook of a study that ever
offered its snug seclusion to a scholar." Through its window the
clergyman saw the opening of the "deadly struggle between two
nations." He heard the rattle of musketry, and
"there needed but a gentle wind to sweep the battle smoke
around this quiet house. Perhaps the reader, whom I cannot
help considering as my guest in the Old Manse and entitled
to all courtesy in the way of sight-showing,--perhaps he
will choose to take a nearer view of the memorable spot. We
stand now on the river's brink."... "Here we are, at the
point where the river was crossed by the old bridge."...
"The Old Manse! We had almost forgotten it, but will return
thither through the orchard."... "What with the river, the
battle-field, the orchard, and the garden, the reader begins
to despair of finding his way back into the Old Manse. But
in agreeable weather it is the truest hospitality to keep
him out-of-doors. I never grew quite acquainted with my
habitation till a long spell of sulky rain had confined me
beneath its roof. There could not be a more sombre aspect of
external nature than as then seen from the windows of my
study."
And so Hawthorne continues through this long and beautiful description
of "The Old Manse;" every change in the point of view is noted.
Mental Point of View.
Closely connected with the physical point of view is the mood or
purpose of the writer; this might be called _the mental point of
view._ Not everything should be told which the author could know from
his position, but only those things which at the time serve his
purpose. In the description already quoted from Newman, the mercantile
gentleman notes a large number of features which are the commercial
advantages of Attica; of these but three are worthy of mention by "yon
pilgrim student" in giving his impression of Athens as "a shrine where
he might take his fill of gazing on those emblems and coruscations of
invisible unoriginate perfection." The others--the soil, the streams,
the climate, the limestone, the fisheries, and the silver mines--do
not serve his purpose. Hawthorne in the long description already
mentioned has retained those features which suggest quiet and peace.
Such a profusion of "quiet," "half asleep," "peaceful," "unruffled,"
"unexcitable" words and phrases never "loitered" through forty pages
of "dreamy" and "whispering" description.
In the following bit from "Lear," where Edgar tells his blinded father
how high the cliff is, only those details are included which measure
distance.
"How fearful
And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as beetles; half way down
Hangs one that gathers samphire,--dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The fishermen, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
Diminished to her cock; her cock, a buoy
Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
That on th' unnumbered idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high.--I'll look no more,
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong."
The following is from Kipling's "The Light that Failed:"--
"What do you think of a big, red, dead city built of red
sandstone, with green aloes growing between the stones,
lying out neglected on honey-colored sands? There are forty
dead kings there, Maisie, each in a gorgeous tomb finer than
all the others. You look at the palaces and streets and
shops and tanks, and think that men must live there, till
you find a wee gray squirrel rubbing its nose all alone in
the marketplace, and a jeweled peacock struts out of a
carved doorway and spreads its tail against a marble screen
as fine pierced as point-lace. Then a monkey--a little black
monkey--walks through the main square to get a drink from a
tank forty feet deep. He slides down the creepers to the
water's edge, and a friend holds him by the tail, in case he
should fall in.
"Is all that true?
"I have been there and seen. Then evening comes and the
lights change till it's just as though you stood in the
heart of a king-opal. A little before sundown, as punctually
as clockwork, a big bristly wild boar, with all his family
following, trots through the city gate, churning the foam on
his tusks. You climb on the shoulder of a big black stone
god, and watch that pig choose himself a palace for the
night and stump in wagging his tail. Then the night-wind
gets up, and the sands move, and you hear the desert outside
the city singing, 'Now I lay me down to sleep,' and
everything is dark till the moon rises."
Note how every detail introduced serves to make the city dead. Dead
kings, a wee gray squirrel, a little black monkey, a bristly wild
boar, the night wind, and the desert singing,--these could not be seen
or heard in a live city with street cars; but all serve to emphasize
the fact that here is "a big, red, dead city."
At the risk of over-emphasizing this point that the purpose of the
author, the mental point of view of the writer, the feeling which the
object gives him and which he wishes to convey to the reader, the
central thought in the description, is primary, and an element that
cannot be overlooked in successful description, I give another
example. This point really cannot be over-emphasized: a writer cannot
be too careful in selecting materials. Careless grouping of
incongruous matters cannot make a picture. Nor does the artistic
author leave the reader in doubt as to the purpose of the description;
its central thought is usually suggested in the first sentence. In the
quotations from Shakespeare and Kipling, the opening sentences are the
germ of what follows. Each detail seems to grow out of this sentence,
and serves to emphasize it. In the following by Stevenson, the
paragraphs spring from the opening sentence; they explain it, they
elaborate it, and they accent it.
"Night is a dead monotonous period under a roof; but in the
open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and
perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of
Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked
between walls and curtains is only a light and living
slumber to the man who sleeps afield. All night long he can
hear Nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes
her rest she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring
hour unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful
influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all
the outdoor world are on their feet. It is then that the
first cock crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but
like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of the night.
Cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on the
dewy hillsides, and change to a new lair among the ferns;
and houseless men, who have lain down with the fowls, open
their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night.
"At what inaudible summons, at what gentle touch of Nature,
are all these sleepers thus recalled in the same hour to
life? Do the stars rain down an influence, or do we share
some thrill of mother earth below our resting bodies? Even
shepherds and old country-folk, who are the deepest read in
these arcana, have not a guess as to the means or purpose of
this nightly resurrection. Towards two in the morning they
declare the thing takes place; and neither know nor inquire
further. And at least it is a pleasant incident. We are
disturbed in our slumber only, like the luxurious Montaigne,
'that we may the better and more sensibly enjoy it.' We have
a moment to look upon the stars. And there is a special
pleasure for some minds in the reflection that we share the
impulse with all outdoor creatures in our neighborhood, that
we have escaped out of the Bastille of civilization, and are
become, for the time being, a more kindly animal and a sheep
of Nature's flock." ("Travels with a Donkey.")
Length of Descriptions.
There is one more step in the exclusion of details. This considers
neither the point of view nor the purpose of the writer, but it is
what is due the reader. Stevenson says in one of his essays that a
description which lasts longer than two minutes is never attempted in
conversation. The listener cannot hold the details enumerated. The
clearest statement regarding this comes from Jules Lemaître in a
criticism upon some descriptions by Emile Zola which the critic says
are praised by persons who have never read them. He says:--
"It has been one of the greatest literary blunders of the
time to suppose that an enumeration of parts is a picture,
to think that forever placing details side by side, however
picturesque they may be, is able in the end to make a
picture, to give us any conception of the vast spectacles in
the physical universe. In reality, a written description
arranges its parts in our mind only when the impression of
the first features of which it is formed are remembered
sufficiently, so that we can easily join the first to those
which complete and end it. In short, a piece of description
is ineffective if we cannot hold in mind all its details at
one time. It is necessary that all the details coexist in
our memory just as the parts of a painting coexist under our
eye. This becomes next to impossible if the description of
one definite object last over fifteen minutes of reading.
The longer it is, the more obscure it becomes. The
individual features fade away in proportion to the number
which are presented; and for this reason one might say that
we cannot see the forest for the trees. Every description
which is over fifty lines ceases to be clear to a mind of
ordinary vigor. After that there is only a succession of
fragmentary pictures which fatigues and overwhelms the
reader."[8]
These, then, are the principles that guide in the choice of materials
for a description. First, the point of view, whether fixed or movable,
should be made clear to the reader; it should be retained throughout
the description, or the change should be announced. By regard for it
the writer will be guided to the exclusion of matters that could not
be observed, and to the inclusion of such details as can be seen and
are essential. Second, the writer will keep out matters that do not
contribute to his purpose, and will select only those details which
assist in producing the desired impression. Third, the limitations of
the reader's powers advise a writer to be brief: five hundred words
should be the outside; two hundred are enough for most writers. These
principles will give to the whole that unity of materials and of
structure which is the first requisite of an effective description.
The next matter for consideration is the arrangement of the materials.
The arrangement depends on the principles that guided in narration,
Mass and Coherence.
Arrangement of Details in Description.
After we have looked at any object long enough to be able to write
about it, one feature comes to assume an importance that sets it far
above all others. To a writer who has looked long at a man, he may
shrink to a cringing piece of weakness, or he may grow to a strong,
self-centred power whose presence alone inspires serenest trust.
Hawthorne, standing in St. Peter's, saw only the gorgeous coloring;
proportions, immensity, and sacredness were as nothing to the
harmonious brilliancy of this expanded "jewel casket."[9] Stevenson,
thinking of the beast of burden best suited to carry his great
sleeping sack, discarded the horse, for, as he says, "she is a fine
lady among animals."[10] The description of a horse which follows this
statement emphasizes the fact that a horse is not intended for
carrying burdens. From the germinal impression of a description, all
the details grow; to this primary impression they all contribute. In
the case of buildings, or other things material, this impression is
generally one of form, sometimes of the height of the object; if
striking, it may be color. The strongest impression of persons is a
quality of character which shows itself either in the face or in the
pose of a man. An example of each may be found in the following
paragraphs from "David Copperfield:"--
"At length we stopped before a very old house bulging out
over the road; a house with long, low lattice-windows
bulging out still farther, and beams with carved heads on
the ends bulging out too, so that I fancied the whole house
was leaning forward, trying to see who was passing on the
narrow pavement below. It was quite spotless in its
cleanliness. The old-fashioned brass knocker on the
low-arched door, ornamented with carved garlands of fruits
and flowers, twinkled like a star; the two stone steps
descending to the door were as white as if they had been
covered with fair linen; and all the angles and corners, and
carvings and mouldings, and quaint little panes of glass,
and quainter little windows, though as old as the hills,
were as pure as any snow that ever fell upon the hills.
"When the pony-chaise stopped at the door, and my eyes were
intent upon the house, I saw a cadaverous face appear at a
small window on the ground floor (in a little round tower
that formed one side of the house), and quickly disappear.
The low arched door then opened, and the face came out. It
was quite as cadaverous as it had looked in the window,
though in the grain of it there was that tinge of red which
is sometimes to be observed in the skins of red-haired
people. It belonged to a red-haired person--a youth of
fifteen, as I take it now, but looking much older whose hair
was cropped as close as the closest stubble; who had hardly
any eyebrows, and no eyelashes, and eyes of a red-brown; so
unsheltered and unshaded that I remember wondering how he
went to sleep. He was high-shouldered and bony; dressed in
decent black, with a white wisp of a neck cloth; buttoned up
to the throat; and had a long, lank, skeleton hand, which
particularly attracted my attention, as he stood at the
pony's head, rubbing his chin with it, and looking up at us
in the chaise."
Hawthorne thus begins his description of "The House of the Seven
Gables:"--
"Maule's Lane, or Pyncheon Street, as it were now more
decorous to call it, was thronged, at the appointed hour, as
with a congregation on its way to church. All, as they
approached, looked upward at the imposing edifice, which was
henceforth to assume its rank among the habitations of
mankind."
And in the same volume his description of "The Pyncheon of To-day"
begins:--
"As the child went down the steps, a gentleman ascended
them, and made his entrance into the shop. It was the
portly, and, had it possessed the advantage of a little more
height, would have been the stately figure of a man,
considerably in the decline of life, dressed in a black suit
of some thin stuff, resembling broadcloth as closely as
possible."
If the description be long, and the object will lend itself to such a
treatment, a definite, tangible, easily understood shape or form
should be suggested at once. Notice Newman's first sentence describing
Attica: "A confined triangle, perhaps fifty miles its greatest length,
and thirty its greatest breadth." Like this is the beginning of the
description of the battle of Waterloo by Victor Hugo.
"Those who would get a clear idea of the battle of Waterloo
have only to lay down upon the ground in their mind a
capital letter A. The left stroke of the A is the road to
Nivelles, the right stroke is the road from Genappe, the
cross of the A is the sunken road from Ohain to Braine
l'Alleud. The top of the A is Mont Saint Jean, Wellington is
there; the left-hand lower point is Hougomont, Reille is
there with Jerome Bonaparte; the right-hand lower point is
La Belle Alliance, Napoleon is there. A little below the
point where the cross of the A meets and cuts the right
stroke, is La Haie Sainte. At the middle of this cross is
the precise point where the final battle word was spoken.
There the lion is placed, the involuntary symbol of the
supreme heroism of the Imperial Guard. The triangle
contained at the top of the A, between the two strokes and
the cross, is the plateau of Mont Saint Jean. The struggle
for this plateau was the whole of the battle."[11]
In "The Vision of Sir Launfal" Lowell opens his beautiful description
with the words, "And what is so rare as a day in June?" From this
general and comprehensive sentence follow all the details which make a
June day perfect.
Hawthorne, after telling how he happened to write of him, begins his
long description of "The Old Apple Dealer" with the following
paragraph:--
"He is a small man, with gray hair and gray stubble beard,
and is invariably clad in a shabby surtout of snuff color,
closely buttoned, and half concealing a pair of gray
pantaloons; the whole dress, though clean and entire, being
evidently flimsy with much wear. His face, thin, withered,
furrowed, and with features which even age has failed to
render impressive, has a frost-bitten aspect. It is a moral
frost which no physical warmth or comfortableness could
counteract. The summer sunshine may fling its white heat
upon him, or the good fire of the depot room may make him
the focus of its blaze on a winter's day; but all in vain;
for still the old man looks as if he were in a frosty
atmosphere, with scarcely warmth enough to keep life in the
region about his heart. It is a patient, long-suffering,
quiet, hopeless, shivering aspect. He is not
desperate,--that, though its etymology implies no more,
would be too positive an expression,--but merely devoid of
hope. As all his past life, probably, offers no spots of
brightness to his memory, so he takes his present poverty
and discomfort as entirely a matter of course; he thinks it
the definition of existence, so far as himself is concerned,
to be poor, cold, and uncomfortable. It may be added, that
time has not thrown dignity as a mantle over the old man's
figure: there is nothing venerable about him: you pity him
without a scruple."
So this old apple dealer shivers all through this description of nine
pages to the last sentences:--
"God be praised, were it only for your sake, that the
present shapes of human existence are not cast in iron nor
hewn in everlasting adamant, but moulded of the vapors that
vanish away while the essence flits upward to the Infinite.
There is a spiritual essence in this gray and lean old shape
that shall flit upward too. Yes; doubtless there is a region
where the lifelong shiver will pass away from his being, and
that quiet sigh, which it has taken him so many years to
breathe, will be brought to a close for good and all."
The prominent characteristic may be the feeling aroused by the object.
It may be horror, as in a description of a haunted house or a
murderer; it may be love, as in the picture of an old home or a
sainted mother. The emotion occasioned is often mentioned or suggested
at once, and the details are afterward given which have called forth
the feeling. Poe uses this in the first paragraph of "The House of
Usher."
"During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the
autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in
the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through
a singularly dreary tract of country, and at length found
myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within view of the
melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was--but, with
the first glimpse of the building, _a sense of insufferable
gloom pervaded my spirit._ I say insufferable; for the
feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable,
because poetic, sentiment with which the mind usually
receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or
terrible. I looked upon the scene before me--upon the mere
house, and the simple landscape features of the domain--upon
the bleak walls--upon the vacant, eye-like windows--upon a
few rank sedges--and upon a few white trunks of decayed
trees--with an utter depression of soul which I can compare
to no earthly sensation more properly than to the
after-dream of a reveler upon opium--the bitter lapse into
every-day life--the hideous dropping off of the veil. There
was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an
unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the
imagination could torture into aught of the sublime.... It
was, possible, I reflected, that a mere different
arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details
of the picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to
annihilate, its capacity for sorrowful impression; and,
acting upon this idea, I reined my horse to the precipitous
brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in unruffled lustre
by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder even
more thrilling than before--upon the remodeled and inverted
images of the gray sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and
the vacant and eye-like windows."
And one may see from looking back at the illustrations given that the
dominant impression which gives the character to the whole
description, this leading quality which is the essence of the whole,
usually stands at the very beginning, and to it all the succeeding
details cling.
The End of a Description.
The end of a description is equally as important as the opening. In
most descriptions, whether short or long, the most important detail,
the detail that emphasizes most the general feeling of the whole,
stands at the end. If the description be short, the necessity of a
comprehensive opening statement is not imperative,--indeed, it may be
made so formal and ostentatious when compared with the rest of the
description as to be ridiculous; yet even in the short description
some important detail should close it. In a long description the
repetition of the opening statement in a new form sometimes stands at
the end. If the description be of movement or change, the end will be
the climax of the movement, the result of the change.
In the examples already given there are illustrations of the methods
of closing. In each case, there is an important detail or an artistic
repetition of the general impression. Many examples of short
characterization can be found in all narratives. In Irving's
description of Ichabod Crane, the next to the last sentence gives the
significant detail, and the last gives another general impression. It
reads:--
"The cognomen of Crane was not inapplicable to his person.
He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders,
long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his
sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his
whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small,
and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes,
and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock
perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind
blew." ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.")
So far this is but an amplification of his likeness to a crane;
certainly "a long snipe nose" "upon his spindle neck" is the most
important detail. Next the author gives another general impression:--
"To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy
day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one
might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending
upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield."
The following is from "The House of Usher:"--
"Shaking off from my spirit what _must_ have been a dream, I
scanned more narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its
principal feature seemed to be that of an excessive
antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been great. Minute
fungi overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine
tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from
any extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry
had fallen, and there appeared to be a wild inconsistency
between its still perfect adaptation of parts and the
crumbling condition of the individual stones. In this there
was much that reminded me of the specious totality of old
woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected
vault with no disturbance from the breath of the external
air. Beyond this indication of extensive decay, however, the
fabric gave little token of instability. Perhaps the eye of
a scrutinizing observer might have discovered a barely
perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof of the
building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag
direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the
tarn."
In this every detail emphasizes the "excessive antiquity" of the
house; and on reading the story there is no question of the importance
of the "barely perceptible fissure." Thereby hangs the tale.
The two following are descriptions of dawn, of change; they have
marked climaxes. The first is by Edward Everett, the second by
Stevenson. The similarity in choice of words and in the feelings of
the men is remarkable.
"Such was the glorious spectacle as I entered the train. As
we proceeded, the timid approach of twilight became more
perceptible; the intense blue of the sky began to soften;
the smaller stars, like little children, went first to rest;
the sister-beams of the Pleiades soon melted together; but
the bright constellations of the west and north remained
unchanged. Steadily the wondrous transfiguration went on.
Hands of angels, hidden from mortal eyes, shifted the
scenery of the heavens; the glories of night dissolved into
the glories of dawn. The blue sky now turned more softly
gray; the great watch-stars shut up their holy eyes; the
east began to kindle. Faint streaks of purple soon blushed
along the sky; the whole celestial concave was filled with
the inflowing tides of the morning light, which came pouring
down from above in one great ocean of radiance, till at
length, as we reached the Blue Hills, a flash of purple
blazed out from above the horizon, and turned the dewy
teardrops of flower and leaf into rubies and diamonds. In a
few seconds, the everlasting gates of morning were thrown
wide open, and the lord of day, arrayed in glories too
severe for the gaze of man, began his state." ("The Uses of
Astronomy.")
"At last she began to be aware of a wonderful revolution,
compared to which the fire of Mittwalden Palace was but a
crack and flash of a percussion cap. The countenance with
which the pines regarded her began insensibly to change; the
grass, too, short as it was, and the whole winding staircase
of the brook's course, began to wear a solemn freshness of
appearance. And this slow transfiguration reached her heart,
and played upon it, and transpierced it with a serious
thrill. She looked all about; the whole face of nature
looked back, brimful of meaning, finger on lip, leaking its
glad secret. She looked up. Heaven was almost emptied of
stars. Such as still lingered shone with a changed and
waning brightness, and began to faint in their stations. And
the color of the sky itself was most wonderful; for the rich
blue of the night had now melted and softened and
brightened; and there had succeeded a hue that has no name,
and that is never seen but as the herald of the morning.
'Oh!' she cried, joy catching at her voice, 'Oh! it is the
dawn!'
"In a breath she passed over the brook, and looped up her
skirts and fairly ran in the dim alleys. As she ran, her
ears were aware of many pipings, more beautiful than music;
in the small, dish-shaped houses in the fork of giant arms,
where they had lain all night, lover by lover, warmly
pressed, the bright-eyed, big-hearted singers began to
awaken for the day. Her heart melted and flowed forth to
them in kindness. And they, from their small and high
perches in the clerestories of the wood cathedral, peered
down sidelong at the ragged Princess as she flitted below
them on the carpet of the moss and tassel.
"Soon she had struggled to a certain hilltop, and saw far
before her the silent inflooding of the day. Out of the East
it welled and whitened; the darkness trembled into light;
and the stars were extinguished like the street-lamps of a
human city. The whiteness brightened into silver; the silver
warmed into gold, and the gold kindled into pure and living
fire; and the face of the East was barred with elemental
scarlet. The day drew its first long breath, steady and
chill; and for leagues around the woods sighed and shivered.
And then, at one bound the sun had floated up; and her
startled eyes received day's first arrow, and quailed under
the buffet. On every side, the shadows leaped from their
ambush and fell prone. The day was come, plain and garish;
and up the steep and solitary eastern heaven, the sun,
victorious over his competitors, continued slowly and
royally to mount." ("Prince Otto.")
Proportion.
One thing further should be said regarding Mass. Not everything can
stand first or last; some important details must be placed in the
midst of a description. These particulars will not be of equal
importance. The more important details may be given their
proportionate emphasis by relatively increasing the length of their
treatment. If one detail is more important than another, it requires
more to be said about it; unimportant matters should be passed over
with a word. Proportion in the length of treatment is a guide to the
relative importance of the matters introduced into a description.
In the description of "The House of Usher," position emphasizes the
barely perceptible fissure. Proportion singles out the crumbling
condition of the individual stones and makes this detail more emphatic
than either the discoloration or the fungi. And in Newman's
description, the olive-tree, the brilliant atmosphere, the thyme, the
bees, all add to the charms of bright and beautiful Athens; but most
of all the Ægean, with its chain of islands, its dark violet billows,
its jets of silver, the heaving and panting of its long waves,--the
restless living element fascinates and enraptures "yon pilgrim
student." Position and proportion are the means of emphasis in a
paragraph of description.
Arrangement must be natural.
Having settled the massing of the description, the next matter for
consideration is the arrangement. In order that the parts of a
description may be coherent, hold together, they should be arranged in
the order in which they would naturally be perceived. What strikes the
eye of the beholder as most important, often the general
characteristic of the whole, should be mentioned first; and the
details should follow as they are seen. In a building, the usual way
of observing and describing is from foundation to turret stone. A
landscape may be described by beginning with what is near and
extending the view; this is common. Sometimes the very opposite plan
is pursued; or one may begin on either hand and advance toward the
other. Of a person near by, the face is the first thing observed; for
it is there that his character can be best discovered. Afterward
details of clothing follow as they would naturally be noticed. If a
person be at a distance his pose and carriage would be about all that
could be seen; as he approaches, the other details would be mentioned
as they came into view. To arrange details in the order in which they
are naturally observed will result in an association in the
description of the details that are contiguous in the objects. Jumping
about in a description is a source of confusion. How entirely it may
ruin a paragraph can be estimated by the effect upon this single
sentence, "He was tall, with feet that might have served for shovels,
narrow shoulders, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, long
arms and legs, and his whole frame most loosely hung together." This
rearrangement makes but a disjointed and feeble impression; and the
reason is entirely that an order in which no person ever observed a
man has been substituted for the commonest order,--from head to foot.
Arrange details so that the parts which are contiguous shall be
associated in the description, and proceed in the order in which the
details are naturally observed.
The following is by Irving; he is describing the stage-coachman:--
"He has commonly a broad, full face, curiously mottled with
red, as if the blood had been forced by hard feeding into
every vessel of the skin; he is swelled into jolly
dimensions by frequent potations of malt liquors, and his
bulk is still further increased by a multiplicity of coats,
in which he is buried like a cauliflower, the upper one
reaching to his heels. He wears a broad-brimmed, low-crowned
hat; a huge roll of colored handkerchief about his neck,
knowingly knotted and tucked in at the bosom; and has in
summer time a large bouquet of flowers in his buttonhole,
the present, most probably, of some enamored country lass.
His waistcoat is commonly of some bright color, striped, and
his small-clothes extend far below the knees, to meet a pair
of jockey boots which reach about half way up his legs."[12]
Use Familiar Images.
When the materials have been selected and arranged, the hardest part
of the work has been done. It now remains to express in language the
picture. A few suggestions regarding the kind of language will be
helpful. The writer must always bear in mind the fact that in
constructing a mental picture each reader does it from the images he
already possesses. "Quaint arabesques" is without meaning to many
persons; and until the word has been looked up in the dictionary, and
the picture seen there, the beautiful line of "Sir Launfal" suggests
no image whatever. So when Stevenson speaks of the birds in the
"clerestories of the wood cathedral," the image is not distinct in the
mind of a young American. Supposing a pupil in California were asked
to describe an orange to an Esquimau. He might say that it is a
spheroid about the size of an apple, and the color of one of
Lorraine's sunsets. This would be absolutely worthless to a child of
the frigid zone. Had he been told that an orange was about the size of
a snowball, much the color of the flame of a candle, that the peeling
came off like the skin from a seal, and that the inside was good to
eat, he would have known more of this fruit. The images which lie in
our minds and from which we construct new pictures are much like the
blocks that a child-builder rearranges in many different forms; but
the blocks do not change. From them he may build a castle or a mill;
yet the only difference is a difference in arrangement. So it is with
the pictures we build up in imagination: our castle in Spain we have
never seen, but the individual elements which we associate to lift up
this happy dwelling-place are the things we know and have seen. A
reader creates nothing new; all he does is to rearrange in his own
mind the images already familiar. Only so may he pass from the known
to the unknown.
The fact that we construct pictures of what we read from those images
already in our minds warns the writer against using materials which
those for whom he writes could not understand. It compels him to
select definite images, and it urges him to use the common and the
concrete. It frequently drives him to use comparisons.
Use of Comparisons.
To represent the extremely bare and unornamented appearance of a
building, one might write, "It looked like a great barn," or "It was a
great barn." In either case the image would be definite, common, and
concrete. In both cases there is a comparison. In the first, where the
comparison is expressed, there is a _simile;_ in the second, where the
comparison is only implied, there is a _metaphor._ These two figures
of speech are very common in description, and it is because they are
of great value. One other is sometimes used,--_personification,_ which
ascribes to inanimate things the attributes of life which are the
property of animate nature. What could be happier than this by
Stevenson: "All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and
freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles"? or this, "A
faint sound, more like a moving coolness than a stream of air"? And at
the end of the chapter which describes his "night under the pines," he
speaks of the "tapestries" and "the inimitable ceiling" and "the view
which I command from the windows." In this one chapter are
personification, simile, metaphor,--all comparisons, and doing what
could hardly be done without them. Common, distinct, concrete images
are surest.
Choice of Words. Adjectives and Nouns.
To body forth these common, distinct, concrete images calls for a
discriminating choice of words; for in the choice of words lies a
large part of the vividness of description. If the thing described be
unknown to the reader, it requires the right word to place it before
him; if it be common, still must the right word be found to set it
apart from the thousand other objects of the same class. The words
that may justly be called describing words are adjectives and nouns;
and of these the adjective is the first descriptive word. The rule
that a writer should never use two adjectives where one will do, and
that he should not use one if a noun can be found that completely
expresses the thought, is a good one to follow. One certain stroke of
the crayon is worth a hundred lines, each approaching the right one.
One word, the only one, will tell the truth more vividly than ten that
approach its expression. For it must be remembered that a description
must be done quickly; every word that is used and does nothing is not
only a waste of time, but is actually in the way. In a description
every word must count. It may be a comparison, an epithet,
personification, or what not, but whatever method is adopted, the
right word must do it quickly.
How much depends on the nice choice of words may be seen by a study of
the selections already quoted; and especially by a careful reading of
those by Stevenson and Everett. To show the use of adjectives and
nouns in description, the following from Kipling is a good
illustration. Toomai had just reached the elephants' "ball-room" when
he saw--
"white-tusked wild males, with fallen leaves and nuts and
twigs lying in the wrinkles of their necks and the folds of
their ears; fat, slow-footed she-elephants, with restless
pinky-black calves only three or four feet high, running
under their stomachs; young elephants with their tusks just
beginning to show, and very proud of them; lanky, scraggy,
old-maid elephants, with their hollow, anxious faces, and
trunks like rough bark; savage old bull-elephants, scarred
from shoulder to flank with great weals and cuts of by-gone
fights, and the caked dirt of their solitary mud bath
dropping from their shoulders; and there was one with a
broken tusk and the marks of the full-stroke, the terrible
drawing scrape of a tiger's claw on his side."[13]
One third of the words in this paragraph are descriptive nouns and
adjectives, none of which the reader wishes to change.
Use of Verbs.
Verbs also have a great value in description. In the paragraph
picturing the dawn, Stevenson has not neglected the verbs. "Welled,"
"whitened," "trembled," "brightened," "warmed," "kindled," and so on
through the paragraph. Try to change them, and it is apparent that
something is lost by any substitution. Kaa, the python, "_pours_
himself along the ground." If he is angry, "Baloo and Bagheera could
see the big swallowing-muscles on either side of Kaa's throat _ripple_
and _bulge._"
Yet in the choice of words, one may search for the bizarre and unusual
rather than for the truly picturesque. Stevenson at times seems to
have lapsed. When he says that Modestine would feel a switch "more
_tenderly_ than my cane;" that he "must _instantly_ maltreat this
uncomplaining animal," meaning constantly; and at another place that
he "had to labor so _consistently_ with" his stick that the sweat ran
into his eyes, there is a suspicion of a desire for the sensational
rather than the direct truth. On the other hand, the beginner finds
himself using words that have lost, their meaning through
indiscriminate usage. "Awful good," "awful pretty," and "awful sweet"
mean something less than good, pretty, and sweet. "Lovely," "dear,"
"splendid," "unique," and a large number of good words have been much
dulled by the ignorant use of babblers. Superlatives and all words
denoting comparison should be used with stinginess. One cannot afford
to part with this kind of coin frequently; the cheaper coins should be
used, else he will find an empty purse when need arises. Thackeray has
this: "Her voice was the sweetest, low song." How much better this,
Her voice was a sweet, low song. All the world is shut out from this,
while in the former he challenges the world by the comparison.
Shakespeare was wiser when he made Lear say,--
"Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low,--an excellent thing in woman."
Avoid words which have lost their meaning by indiscriminate use; shun
the sensational and the bizarre; use superlatives with economy; but in
all you do, whether in unadorned or figurative language, choose the
word that is quick and sure and vivid--the one word that exactly
suggests the picture.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES
QUESTIONS.
THE OLD MANSE.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 69.)
Are there narrative portions in "The Old Manse"? paragraphs of
exposition?
Do you term the whole narration, description, or exposition? Why?
Frame a sentence which you think would be an adequate topic sentence
for the whole piece.
What phrase in the first paragraph allows the author to begin the
second with the words, "Nor, in truth, had the Old Manse," etc.? Where
in the second paragraph is found the words which are the source of "my
design," mentioned in the third? How does the author pass from the
fourth paragraph to the fifth? In the same way note the connections
between the succeeding paragraphs. They are most skillfully dovetailed
together. Now make a list of the phrases in the first fifteen pages
which introduce paragraphs, telling from what in the preceding
paragraph each new paragraph springs. Do you think that such a
felicitous result just happened? or did Hawthorne plan it?
Does Hawthorne generally introduce his descriptions by giving the
feeling aroused by the object described, a method very common with
Poe?
In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of p. 18, what do you think
of the selection of material? What have guided in the inclusion and
exclusion of details?
Write a paragraph upon this topic: There could not be a more joyous
aspect of external nature than as seen from the windows of my study
just after the passing of a cooling shower. Be careful to select
things that have been made happy, and to use adjectives and nouns that
are full of joy.
Make a list of the words used to describe "The Old Apple Dealer."
Has this description Unity?
What relation to the whole has the first sentence of paragraph three?
the last?
Do you think there is a grammatical error in the third sentence of
this paragraph?
By contrasts to what has Hawthorne brought out better the character of
the Apple Dealer? When can contrasts help?
AN INDIAN-SUMMER REVERIE, AND OTHER POEMS.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 30.)
In this poem what purpose is served by the first two stanzas?
Where in the landscape does the author begin? Which way does he
progress?
Quote stanzas in which other senses than sight are called upon.
Make a list of the figures of speech. How many similes? metaphors?
examples of personification? Which seems most effective? Which
instance of its use do you prefer? Has Lowell used too many figures?
Read "The Oak," "The Dandelion," and "Al Fresco."
Are they description or exposition? Do they bear out Lowell's estimate
of himself?
THE SKETCH-BOOK.
(Riverside Literature Series, Nos. 51, 52.)
Why has Irving given four pages to the description of Sleepy Hollow
before he introduces Ichabod Crane?
Why, then, seven pages to Ichabod before the story begins?
What gives the peculiar interest to this tale?
In the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" how many paragraphs of description
close with an important detail?
In how many with a general characterization?
In all the descriptions of buildings by Irving that you have read,
what are the first things mentioned,--size, shape, color, or what?
Make a list, so as to be sure.
Does Irving use many comparisons? Are the likenesses to common things?
Select the ten you think best. Are there more in narrative or
descriptive passages? What do you gather from this fact?
In "Christmas Day," on p. 51 (R. L. S., No. 52), does Irving proceed
from far to near in the landscape? Is this common? Find another
example.
How has Irving emphasized the littleness of the minister described on
p. 56 (R. L. S., No. 52)?
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 119.)
Is the arrangement of the details in the last two lines of the first
paragraph stronger than the arrangement of the same details on p. 63?
Why, or why not?
In the description of the hall, pp. 67 and 68, do the details produce
the effect upon you which they did upon Poe?
Find a description in this piece which closes with an important
detail.
Is Usher described at all when Poe says, "I gazed upon him with a
feeling half of pity, half of awe"? Do the details enumerated arouse
such feelings in you? Would the feeling have been called forth if it
had not been suggested by Poe? Is there, then, any advantage in this
method of opening a description?
What good was done by describing Usher as Poe knew him in youth?
Why is the parenthetical clause on p. 72 necessary?
On p. 80, should Poe write "previously to its final interment"?
What do you think of the length of the sentence quoted on p. 85?
Does Poe use description to accent the mood of the narrative, or to
make concrete the places and persons?
Why is "The Haunted Palace" introduced into the story?
Is this story as good as "The Gold-Bug"?
SILAS MARNER.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 83.)
Why is not the early history of Silas Marner related first in the
story?
By what steps has the author approached the definite time?
From the fragments about his appearance, do you get a clear idea of
how Marner looks?
Do you approve this method of scattering the description along through
the story? Write a description of Marner on the night he was going to
the tavern.
Could not the quarrel between Godfrey and Dunsey been omitted?
Describe the interior of Marner's cottage.
Why should Sally Oates and her dropsy be admitted to the story?
Do you know as well how George Eliot's characters look as how they
think and feel?
What do you think of the last sentence of Chapter IV.? Why does not
Chapter V. go on with Dunsey's story? Why is Chapter VI. introduced at
all? What of its close?
What figure in the last sentence of Chapter X.?
Would you prefer to know how tall Eppie was, what kind of clothes she
wore, etc., to the knowledge you gain of her on p. 178?
Suppose that Dunsey came home the night he staked Wildfire, recite the
conversation between him and Godfrey.
Have Dolly Winthrop, Priscilla Lammeter, and Mr. Macey talk over "The
New Minister."
Write on "What I see in George Eliot's Face."
THE DESERTED VILLAGE.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 68.)
Is this piece description or exposition?
In the first stanza where is the topic sentence?
The author has made two groups of charms. Would it be as well to
change them about? Give your reasons.
Where has he used the ear instead of the eye to suggest his picture?
Is it clear?
What method is adopted in lines 125-128? See also lines 237-250.
Can you unite the paragraphs on p. 25? Why do you think so?
Could you suggest a new arrangement of details in lines 341-362 that
would be as good as the present? What are the last four lines for?
EXERCISES.
Enumerative Description may well employ a few lessons. In it accuracy
of detail must be studied, and every detail must be introduced.
1. The Teacher's Desk.
2. Write a letter to a carpenter giving details for the construction
of a small bookcase.
3. By telling how you made it, describe a camp, a kite, a dress, or a
cake. Narration may be employed for the purpose of description. A good
example may be found in "Robinson Crusoe" in the chapter describing
his home after the shipwreck.
4. Describe an unfurnished room. Shape, size, position, and number of
windows, the fireplace, etc., should be definite. Be sure to give the
point of view. To say "On my right hand," "In front of me," or any
similar phrases means nothing unless the reader knows where you are.
In these exercises the pupil will doubtless employ the paragraph of
particulars. This is the most common in description. Other forms are
valuable.
5. Using a paragraph telling what it was not, finish this: I followed
the great singer to her home. Imagine my surprise in finding that the
house in which this lady lived was not a home of luxury and
splendor,--not even a home of comfort. Go on with the details of a
home of luxury which were _not_ there. Finish with what you did see.
This is really a description of two houses set in artistic contrast to
heighten the effect. Remember you are outside.
6. By the use of comparison finish this: The home of my poor little
friend was but little better than a barn. Choose only such details as
emphasize the barn-like appearance of the home. There is but one room.
Remember where you are standing; and keep in mind the effect you wish
to produce.
7. Using a moving point of view, describe an interior. Do not have too
many rooms.
8. Furnish the room described in number four to suit your taste. Tell
how it looks. Remember that a few things give character to a room.
9. Describe your childhood's home as it would look to you after years
of absence.
10. Using a paragraph of the obverse, describe the appearance of the
house from which you were driven by the cruelty of a drunken father.
11. Describe a single tree standing alone in a field. It will be well
for the teacher to read to the class some descriptions of
trees,--Lowell's "Birch" and "Oak," "Under the Willows," and some
stanzas from "An Indian Summer Reverie." Holmes has some good
paragraphs on trees in "The Autocrat." Any good tree descriptions will
help pupils to do it better than they can without suggestion. They
should describe their own tree, however.
12. Describe some single flower growing wild. Read Lowell's
"Dandelion," "Violet, Sweet Violet," Wordsworth's "Daisy," "The
Daffodils," "The Small Celandine," and Burns's "Daisy." These do not
so much describe as they arouse a feeling of love for the flowers
which will show itself in the composition.
13. Describe a view of a lake. If possible, have your point of view
above the lake and use the paragraph of comparison.
14. Describe a landscape from a single point of view. Read Curtis's
"My Castles in Spain" from "Prue and I," many descriptions in "An
Inland Voyage" by Stevenson, and "Bay Street" by Bliss Carman in "The
Atlantic Monthly."
15. Describe your first view of a small cluster of houses or a small
town.
16. Approach the town, describing its principal features. Keep the
reader informed as to where you are.
17. Describe a dog of your own.
18. Describe a dog of your neighbor's. Before the description is
undertaken read "Our Dogs" and "Rab" by Dr. Brown; "A Dog of Flanders"
by Ouida. Scott has some noble fellows in his novels.
19. Describe a flock of chickens. There are good descriptions of
chickens in "The House of the Seven Gables" and in "Sketches" by
Dickens.
20. Describe the burning of your own home. Be careful not to narrate.
21. Describe a stranger you met on the street to-day. It is easier to
describe a person if you and the person you describe move toward each
other. Remember that you begin the description at a distance. Details
should be mentioned as they actually come into view.
22. Describe your father in his favorite corner at home.
23. Describe a person you do not like, by telling what he is not.
24. Describe a person you admire, but are not acquainted with, using
the paragraph of comparisons.
25. Describe a picture.
It would be well to have at the end of this year four or five stories
written, in which description plays a part. Its principal use is to
give the setting to the story, to give concreteness to the characters,
and to accent the mood of the story.
Most passages of description are short. Rarely will any pupil write
over three hundred words. One hundred are often better. The short
composition gives an opportunity for the study of accuracy of
expression. What details to include; in what order to arrange them
that they produce the best effect, both of vividness and naturalness;
and the influence of the point of view and the purpose of the author
on the unity of description should be kept constantly present in the
exercises. Careful attention should be paid to choice of words, for on
right words depends in a large degree the vividness of a description.
Right words in well-massed paragraphs of vivid description should be
the object this term.
* * * * *
CHAPTER V
EXPOSITION
So far we have studied discourse which deals with things,--things
active, doing something, considered under the head of narration; and
things at rest, and pictured, considered in description. Now we come
to exposition, which deals with ideas either separately or in
combinations. Instead of Mr. Smith's horse, exposition treats of the
general term, horse. "The Great Stone Face" may have taught a lesson
by its story, but the discussion of the value of lofty ideals is a
subject for exposition.
General Terms Difficult.
That general terms and propositions are harder to get hold of than
concrete facts is readily apparent in the first reading of an author
like Emerson. To a young person it means little. Yet when he puts in
the place of the general terms some specific examples, and so verifies
the statements, the general propositions have a mine of meaning, and
"the sense of the author is as broad as the world." This stanza from
Lowell is but little suggestive to young readers:--
"Such earnest natures are the fiery pith,
The compact nucleus, round which systems grow!
Mass after mass becomes inspired therewith,
And whirls impregnate with the central glow."[14]
Yet when Columbus and Luther and Garrison are mentioned as
illustrations of the meaning, it becomes world-wide in its
application. Still in order to get at the thought, there is first the
need of the specific and the concrete; afterward we pass to the
general and the abstract.
As abstract ideas are harder to get hold of than concrete facts, so
exposition has difficulties greater than those found in narration and
description. It is not so hard to tell what belongs in a story; the
events are all distinct. Nor is it so difficult to know what to
include in a description; one can look and see. In exposition this is
not so. In most minds ideas do not have distinct limits; the edges
rather are indistinct. It is hard to tell where the idea stops. In
writing of "The Uses of Coal," it is easy to wander over an indistinct
boundary and to take a survey of "The Origin of Coal." Not only may
one include what unquestionably should be excluded, but there is no
definite guide to the arrangement of the materials, such as was found
in narration. There a sequence of time was an almost infallible rule;
here the writer must search carefully how to arrange hazy ideas in
some effective form. As discourse comes to deal more with general
ideas, the difficulties of writing increase; and the difficulties are
not due to any new principles of structure which must be introduced.
When one says that the material should be selected according to the
familiar law of Unity, he has given the guiding principle. Yet the
real difficulty is still before an author: it is to decide what stamp
to put upon such elusive matter as ideas. They cannot be kept long
enough in the twilight of consciousness to analyze them; and often
ideas that have been marked "accepted" have, upon reëxamination, to be
"rejected." To examine ideas--the material used in this form of
discourse--so thoroughly that they may be accurately, definitely known
in their backward relation and their bearing upon what follows, this
is the seat of the difficulty in exposition.
Exposition may conveniently be classified into exposition of a term,
or definition; and exposition of a proposition, which is generally
suggested by the term exposition.
Definition.
Definition of a word means giving its limits or boundaries. Of man it
might be said that it is a living animal, having a strong bony
skeleton; that this skeleton consists of a trunk from which extend
four limbs, called arms and legs, and is surmounted by a bony cavity,
called a skull; that the skeleton protects the vital organs, and is
itself covered by a muscular tissue which moves the bones and gives a
rounded beauty to their ugliness; that man has a highly developed
nervous system, the centre of which is the brain placed in the skull.
So a person might go on for pages, enumerating the attributes which,
taken together, make up the general idea of man.
Exposition and Description distinguished.
This sort of exposition is very near description; indeed, were the
purpose different, it would be description. The purpose, however, is
not to tell how an individual looks, but to place the object in a
class. It is therefore not description, but exposition. Moreover, the
method is different. In description those characteristics are given
that distinguish the object from the rest of the class; while in
exposition those qualities are selected which are common to all
objects of its class.
Logical Definition.
On account of the length of the definition by an enumeration of all
the attributes, it is not frequently used except in long treatises.
For it there has been substituted what is called a _logical
definition._ Instead of naming all the characteristics of an object, a
logical definition groups many attributes under one general term, and
then adds a quality which distinguishes the object from the others of
the general class. Man has been defined as the "reasoning animal." In
this definition a large number of attributes have been gathered
together in the general term "animal;" then man is separated from the
whole class "animal" by the word "reasoning." A logical definition
consists, then, of two parts: the general term naming the genus, and
the limiting term naming the distinguishing attribute called the
differentia.
Genus and Differentia.
Genus and differentia are found in every good definition. The _genus_
should be a term more general than the term defined. "Man is a person
who reasons" is a poor definition; because "person" is no more general
than "man." "A canine is a dog that is wild" is very bad, because
"dog," the general term in the definition, is less general than the
word defined. However, to say that "a dog is a canine that has been
domesticated," is a definition in which the genus is more general than
the term defined.
Next, the genus should be a term well understood. "Man is a mammal who
reasons" is all right, in having a genus more general than the term
defined, but the definition fails with many because "mammal" is not
well understood. "Botany is that branch of biology which treats of
plant life" has in it the same error. "Biology" is not so well
understood as "botany," though it is a more general term. In cases of
this sort, the writer should go farther toward the more general until
he finds a term perfectly clear to all. "Man is an animal that
reasons," "botany is the branch of science that treats of plant life,"
would both be easily understood. The genus should be a term better
understood than the term defined; and it should be a term more general
than the term defined.
A definition may be faulty in its _differentia_ also. The differentia
is that part of a definition which names the difference between the
term defined and the general class to which it belongs. "Man is a
reasoning animal." "Animal" names the general class, and "reasoning"
is the differentia which separates "man" from other "animals." On the
selection of this limiting word depends the accuracy of the
definition. "Man is an animal that walks," or "that has hands," or
"that talks," are all faulty; because bears walk, monkeys have hands,
and parrots talk. Supposing the following definitions were given: "A
cat is an animal that catches rats and mice;" "A rose is a flower that
bears thorns;" "Gold is a metal that is heavy;" all would be faulty
because the differentia in each is faulty. Notice, too, the
definitions of "dog" and "canine" already given. Even "man is a
reasoning animal" may fail; since many men declare that other animals
reason. The differentia should include all the members that the term
denotes, and it should exclude all that it does not denote.
Requisites of a good Definition.
The requisites of a good definition are: first, that it shall include
or denote all the members of the class; second, that it shall exclude
everything which does not belong to its class; third, that the words
used in the definition shall be better understood than the word
defined; fourth, that it shall be brief.
A definition may perfectly expound a term; and because of the very
qualities that make it a good definition, accuracy and brevity, it may
be almost valueless to the ordinary reader. For instance, this
definition, "An acid is a substance, usually sour and sharp to the
taste, that changes vegetable blue colors to red, and, combining with
an earth, an alkali, or a metallic oxide, forms a salt," would not
generally be understood. So it frequently becomes necessary to do more
than give a definition in order to explain the meaning of a term. This
brings us to the study of exposition, as it is generally understood,
in which all the resources of language are called into service to
explain a term or a proposition.
How do Men explain? First, by Repetition.
What, then, are the methods of explaining a proposition? First, _a
proposition may be explained by the repetition of the thought in some
other form._ To be effective, repetition must add something to what
has been said; the words used may be more specific or they may be more
general. For example, "A strong partisan may not be a good citizen.
The stanchest Republican may by reason of a blind adherence to party
be working an injury to the country he loves. Indeed, one can easily
conceive a body of men so devoted to a theory, beautiful though it may
be in many respects, that they stand in the way of the world's
progress." The second sentence repeats the thought of the first in
more specific terms; the third repeats it in more general terms. The
specific may be explained by the general; more often the general is
cleared up by the specific. In either case, the proposition must be
brought one step nearer to the reader by the restatement, or the
repetition is not good.
Speaking of written or printed words, Barrett Wendell writes:--
"In themselves, these black marks are nothing but black
marks more or less regular in appearance. Modern English
type and script are rather simple to the eye. Old English
and German are less so; less so still, Hebrew and Chinese.
But all alphabets present to the eye pretty obvious traces
of regularity; in a written or printed page the same mark
will occur over and over again. This is positively all we
see,--a number of marks grouped together and occasionally
repeated. A glance at a mummy-case, an old-fashioned
tea-chest, a Hebrew Bible, will show us all that any eye can
ever see in a written or printed document. The outward and
visible body of style consists of a limited number of marks
which, for all any reader is apt to know, are purely
arbitrary." ("English Composition.")
In this paragraph every sentence is a repetition of some part of the
opening or topic sentence, and serves to explain it.
Second, by telling the obverse.
Second, _a proposition may be explained by telling what it is not._ At
times this is as valuable as telling what it is. Care should be taken
that the thing excluded or denied have some likeness to the
proposition or term being explained; that the two be really in some
danger of being confused. Unless to a hopelessly ignorant person, it
would not explain anything to say "a horse is not a man;" but to
assert that "a whale is not a fish, though they have many points in
common," would prepare the way for an explanation of what a whale is.
The obverse statement is nearly always followed by a repetition of
what the thing is.
The following from Newman illustrates the method:
"Now what is Theology? First, I will tell you what it is
not. And here, in the first place (though of course I speak
on the subject as a Catholic), observe that, strictly
speaking, I am not assuming that Catholicism is true, while
I make myself the champion of Theology. Catholicism has not
formally entered into my argument hitherto, nor shall I just
now assume any principle peculiar to it, for reasons which
will appear in the sequel, though of course I shall use
Catholic language. Neither, secondly, will I fall into the
fashion of the day, of identifying Natural Theology with
Physical Theology; which said Physical Theology is a most
jejune study, considered as a science, and really no science
at all, for it is ordinarily no more than a series of pious
or polemical remarks upon the physical world viewed
religiously, whereas the word 'Natural' comprehends man and
society, and all that is involved therein, as the great
Protestant writer, Dr. Butler, shows us. Nor, in the third
place, do I mean by Theology polemics of any kind; for
instance, what are called 'Evidences of Religion,' or 'the
Christian Evidences.'... Nor, fourthly, do I mean by
Theology that vague thing called 'Christianity,' or 'our
common Christianity,' or 'Christianity the law of the land,'
if there is any man alive who can tell what it is....
Lastly, I do not understand by Theology, acquaintance with
the Scriptures; for, though no person of religious feeling
can read Scripture but he will find those feelings roused,
and gain much knowledge of history into the bargain, yet
historical reading and religious feeling are not a science.
I mean none of these things by Theology. I simply mean the
Science of God, or the truths we know about God put into a
system; just as we have a science of the stars, and call it
astronomy, or of the crust of the earth, and call it
geology."[15]
Third, by Details.
Third, _a common way of explaining a proposition is to go into
particulars about it._ Enough particulars should be given to furnish a
reasonable explanation of the proposition. Macaulay, writing of the
"muster-rolls of names" which Milton uses, goes into details. He
says:--
"They are charmed names. Every one of them is the first link
in a long chain of associated ideas. Like the dwelling place
of our infancy revisited in manhood, like the song of our
country heard in a strange land, they produce upon us an
effect wholly independent of their intrinsic value. One
transports us back to a remote period of history. Another
places us among the novel scenes and manners of a distant
region. A third evokes all the dear classical recollections
of childhood,--the schoolroom, the dog-eared Virgil, the
holiday, and the prize. A fourth brings before us the
splendid phantoms of chivalrous romance, the trophied lists,
the embroidered housings, the quaint devices, the haunted
forests, the enchanted gardens, the achievements of
enamoured knights, and the smiles of rescued
princesses."[16]
Fourth, by Illustrations.
Fourth, _a proposition may be explained by the use of a single example
or illustration._ The value of this method depends on the choice of
the example. It must in no essential way differ from the general case
it is intended to illustrate. Supposing this proposition were advanced
by some woman-hater: "All women are, by nature, liars," and it should
be followed by this sentence, "For example, take this lady of
fashion." Such an illustration is worthless. The individual chosen
does not fairly represent the class. If, on the other hand, a teacher
in physics should announce that "all bodies fall at the same rate in a
vacuum," and should illustrate by saying, "If I place a bullet and a
feather in a tube from which the air has been exhausted, they will be
found to fall equally fast," his example would be a fair one, as the
two objects differ in no manner essential to the experiment from "all
bodies."
Here should be included anecdotes used as illustrations. They are of
value if they are of the same type as the general class they are
intended to explain. They may be of little value, however. It could
safely be said that half the stories told in campaign speeches are not
instances in point at all, but are told only to amuse and deceive.
Specific instances must be chosen with care if they are to serve a
useful purpose in exposition.
This example is from Newman:--
"To know is one thing, to do is another; the two things are
altogether distinct. A man knows that he should get up in
the morning,--he lies abed; he knows that he should not lose
his temper, yet he cannot keep it. A laboring man knows that
he should not go to the ale-house, and his wife knows that
she should not filch when she goes out charing, but,
nevertheless, in these cases, the consciousness of a duty is
not all one with the performance of it. There are, then,
large families of instances, to say the least, in which men
may become wiser, without becoming better."[17]
Fifth, by Comparisons.
Last, _a thing may be explained by telling what it is like, or what it
is not like._ This method of comparison is very frequently employed.
To liken a thing to something already known is a vivid way of
explaining. Moreover in many cases it is easier than the method of
repetition or that of details. By this method Macaulay explains his
proposition that "it is the character of such revolutions that we
always see the worst of them first." He says:--
"A newly liberated people may be compared to a northern army
encamped on the Rhine or the Xeres. It is said that when
soldiers in such a situation first find themselves able to
indulge without restraint in such a rare and expensive
luxury, nothing is to be seen but intoxication. Soon,
however, plenty teaches discretion, and, after wine has been
for a few months their daily fare, they become more
temperate than they had ever been in their own country. In
the same manner, the final and permanent fruits of liberty
are wisdom, moderation, and mercy. Its immediate effects are
often atrocious crimes, conflicting errors, skepticism on
points the most clear, dogmatism on points the most
mysterious."[18]
The comparison may be a simile or a metaphor, as when Huxley writes,
explaining "the physical basis of life:"--
"Protoplasm, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all
life. It is the clay of the potter: which, bake it and paint
it as he will, remains clay, separated by artifice, and not
by nature, from the commonest brick or sun-dried clod."[19]
These, then, are the methods commonly adopted for explaining terms and
propositions. First, by the use of definitions; second, by repeating
the proposition either directly or obversely, adding something to the
thought by each repetition; third, by enumerating particulars which
form the ground for the statement; fourth, by selecting an instance
which fairly illustrates the proposition; fifth, by the use of
comparisons and analogies.
The Subject.
Some general considerations regarding the choice of a subject have
been given. A subject should lend itself to the form of discourse
employed; next, it should be a subject interesting to the readers; and
third, it should be interesting to the writer and suited to his
ability. The last condition makes it advisable to limit the subject to
a narrow field. Few persons have the ability to view a general subject
in all its relations. "Books" everybody knows something of; yet very
few are able to treat this general subject in all its ramifications. A
person writing of the general topic "books" would not only be
compelled to know what a book is, what may truly be called a book, and
what is the value of books to readers, and therefore the influence of
the different kinds of literature; he would also be driven to study
the machinery for making books, the history of printing, illustrating,
and binding books, and all the mechanical processes connected with the
manufacture of books. The subject might take quite another turn, and
be the development of fiction or drama; it might be a discussion of
the influences, political or social, that have moulded literature; it
might be a study of character as manifested in an author's works. No
one is well fitted to write on the general topic "books." A subject
should be limited.
The Subject should allow Concrete Treatment.
For young persons _the subject should be so selected and stated that
the treatment may be concrete._ As persons advance they make more
generalizations; few, however, go so far as to think in general terms.
Macaulay says, "Logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great
mass of men must have images." That author depended largely for his
glittering effects upon the use of common, concrete things which the
masses understand. The subject should be such that it can be treated
concretely. "Love," as a general proposition, is beautiful; but what
more can a young writer say about it? Let him leave the whole horde of
abstract subjects found in old rhetorics alone. They are subjects for
experience; they cannot be handled by youth.
The Theme.
After the subject has been chosen, the writer next considers how he
shall treat it. He selects the attitude he will assume toward the
proposition, his point of view; and this position he embodies in a
short sentence, called his _theme._ For instance, "patriotism" is the
subject; as it stands it is abstract and very general. However, this,
"Can a partisan be a patriot?" would be sufficiently concrete to be
treated. Even yet there is no indication of the author's point of
view. Should he write, "A real partisan is no patriot," his theme is
announced, and his point of view known.
A _theme,_ either explicit or implicit, _is essential in exposition._
It is not necessary that it shall be stated to the reader, but it must
be clearly stated by the writer for his own guidance. It is, however,
usually announced at the opening of the essay. Whether announced or
not, it is most essential to the success of the essay. It is the
touchstone by which the author tries all the material which he has
collected. Not everything on the subject of patriotism should be
admitted to an essay that has for its theme, "A real partisan cannot
be a true patriot." It would save many a digression if the theme were
always written in bold, black letters, and placed before the author as
he writes. Every word in a theme should be there for a purpose,
expressing some important modification of the thought. For instance,
the statement above regarding a partisan may be too sweeping; perhaps
the essayist would prefer to discuss the modified statement that "a
blind partisan cannot always be a true patriot." The theme should
state exactly what will be treated in the essay. The statement of it
should employ the hardest kind of thinking; and when the theme is
determined definitely and for all, the essay is safe from the
intrusion of foreign ideas which disturb the harmony of the whole.
Another advantage in the theme is that, when once chosen, it will go
far toward writing the essay. One great trouble with the young writer
is that he is not willing to rely on his theme to suggest his
composition. Mr. Palmer well says:--
"He examines his pen point, the curtains, his inkstand, to
see if perhaps ideas may not be had from these. He wonders
what the teacher will wish him to say, and he tries to
recall how the passage sounded in the Third Reader. In every
direction but one he turns, and that is the direction where
lies the prime mover of his toil, his subject. Of that he is
afraid. Now, what I want to make evident is that his subject
is not in reality the foe, but the friend. It is his only
helper. His composition is not to be, as he seems to
suppose, a mass of laborious inventions, but it is made up
exclusively of what the subject dictates. He has only to
attend. At present he stands in his own way, making such a
din with his private anxieties that he cannot hear the rich
suggestions of his subject. He is bothered with considering
how he feels, or what he or somebody else will like to see
on his paper. This is debilitating business. He must lean on
his subject, if he would have his writing strong, and busy
himself with what it says, rather than with what he would
say."[20]
The Title.
Having selected a subject, and with care stated the theme, it yet
remains to give the essay a name. There is something in a name, and
those authors who make a living by the pen are the shrewdest in
displaying their wares under the most attractive titles. _The title
should be attractive,_ but it should not promise what the essay does
not give. Newspaper headlines are usually attractive enough, but
shamefully untruthful. Next, the title should _indicate the scope of
the essay._ When Mr. Palmer calls his little book "Self-Cultivation in
English," it is evident that it is not a text-book, and that it will
not treat English as literature or as a science. Then, the title
should be _short._ The theme can rarely be used as a title; it is too
long. But the paramount idea developed in the essay should be embodied
in the title. "Partisanship and Patriotism" would be a good subject to
give the essay we have spoken of. The title, then, should be
attractive; it should be short; and it should truthfully indicate the
contents of the essay.
Selection of Material.
One of the important factors in the construction of an essay is the
selection of material. Though theme and title have already been
discussed, it was not because they are the things for a writer to
consider next after he has chosen his subject, but because they are so
intimately bound up in the subject that their consideration at that
time was natural. Before a writer can decide upon the position he will
assume toward a proposition, he should have looked over the field in a
general way; for only with the facts before him is he competent to
choose his point of view and to state his theme. The title is not in
the least essential to the writing of the essay; it may be deferred
until the essay is finished. It is necessary, however, that the writer
have much knowledge of his subject, and that from this knowledge he be
able to frame an opinion regarding the subject. When this has been
done he is ready to begin the work of constructing his essay; and the
first question in exposition, as in narration and description, is the
selection of material to develop the theme he has chosen.
The selection of material is a more difficult matter in exposition
than in narration and description. It requires the shrewdest scrutiny
to keep out matter that does not help the thought forward. In
narration we decided by the main incident; in description by the
purpose and the point of view; in exposition we test all material by
its relation to the theme. Does it help to explain the theme? If not,
however good material it may be, it has no business in the essay.
Association of ideas is a law by which, when one of two related ideas
is mentioned, the other is suggested. To illustrate, when Manila is
mentioned, Admiral Dewey appears; when treason is spoken of, Arnold is
in the mind. This law is of fundamental importance in arranging an
essay; one thing should suggest the next. But valuable as it is, even
indispensable, it may become the source of much mischief. For
instance, a pupil has this for a topic, "Reading gives pleasure to
many." He writes as his second sentence, "By pleasure I mean the
opposite of pain," and goes on. "All things are understood by their
opposites. If we did not know sickness, we could not enjoy our health.
Joy is understood through sorrow. I remember my first sorrow. My
father had just given me a new knife,--my first knife," and so on from
one thing to another. And not so unnaturally either; each sentence has
suggested the next, but not one is on the topic. The most anxious
watch must be kept in the selection of material. Some will be admitted
without any question; some will be excluded with a brusqueness almost
brutal. There is a third class, however, that is allied with the
subject, yet it is not so easy to determine whether it should be
admitted or rejected. This class requires the closest questioning. It
must contribute to the strength of the essay, not to its pages, or it
has no place there.
Scale of Treatment.
_There is another condition which must be considered in the selection
of material, the scale of treatment._ If Macaulay had been asked by a
daily paper to contribute a paragraph of five hundred words on Milton,
he could not have introduced all the numerous topics which have their
place in his essay of one hundred pages. He might have mentioned
Milton's poetry and his character, the two main divisions of the
present essay; but Dante and Æschylus, Puritan and Royalist, would
scarcely have received notice. The second consideration in selecting
material is the purpose and length of the essay, and the consequent
thoroughness with which the subject is to be treated.
_The exhaustiveness with which an author treats any subject depends,
first, on his knowledge._ Any person could write a paragraph on
Milton; Macaulay and Lowell wrote delightful essays on the topic;
David Masson has written volumes about him. These would have been
impossible except to a person who had been a special student of the
subject. Second, the thoroughness of the treatment depends _on the
knowledge of the readers._ For persons acquainted with the record of
the momentous events of Milton's time, it would have been quite
unnecessary, it might be considered even an insult to intelligence, to
go into such details of history. The shortest statement suffices when
the reader is already familiar with the subject and needs only to know
the application in this case. Third, the scale of treatment depends
_on the purpose for which the essay is written._ If a newspaper
paragraph, it is one thing; if for a magazine, it is quite another; if
it is to be the final word on the subject, it may reach to volumes.
An apt illustration of proportion in the scale of treatment has been
given by Scott and Denny in their "Composition-Rhetoric." They suggest
that three maps of the United States, one very large, another half the
size of the first, and a third very small, be hung side by side. If a
comparison be made, it will be found that, whereas a great number of
cities are represented on the largest map, only half as many appear on
the middle-sized map. If the smallest map be examined, only the
largest cities, the longest rivers, the greatest lakes, and the
highest mountains can be found; all others must be omitted. On all
three maps the same relation of parts is maintained. In proportion to
the whole, New York State will hold the same position in all of them.
The Mississippi River will flow from Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico,
and the Gulf will sweep in a curve from Texas to Florida. The scale is
different, but the proportion does not change.
This principle applies in the construction of themes. In a paragraph
only very important topics will receive any mention. In an essay these
important topics retain their proper place and relation, while many
other points of subordinate rank will be introduced. If the treatment
be lengthened to a book, a host of minor sub-topics will be
considered, each adding something to the development of the theme, and
each giving to its principal topic the relative importance which
belongs to the main divisions of the essay. The scale of treatment
will have much to do with the selection of material.
Using Macaulay's "Milton" as an illustration, the analyses below will
show how by increasing the size of the essay new subjects come into
the field for notice. The first is but a paragraph and has the two
main divisions of the essay. The second is an outline for an essay of
two thousand words. In the third only one of the sub-topics is
analyzed, as Macaulay has discussed it. It would take too much space
to analyze minutely the whole essay.
MILTON.
A. Milton's poetry has given him his position among great men.
B. His conduct was such as was to be expected from a man of a spirit
so high and of an intellect so powerful.
In the following outline the same main headings are retained, and the
sub-topics which explain them are introduced. The numbers indicate the
paragraphs in Macaulay's essay given to each topic.
INTRODUCTION (1-8).
A. Milton's poetry has given him his position among men. (9-46.)
I. No poet has ever triumphed over greater difficulties than
Milton. (10-19.)
II. In his lesser works he shows his great power. (20-31.)
III. There is but one modern poem that can be compared with
"Paradise Lost;" Dante's "Divine Comedy" has great power, is
upon a kindred subject, but in style of treatment widely
different. (32-46.)
Transition. (47-49.)
B. His conduct was such as was to be expected from a man of a spirit
so high and of an intellect so powerful. (50-90.)
I. He lived at one of the most memorable eras in the history of
mankind, and his conduct must be judged as that of the people
is judged. (50-78.)
II. There were some peculiarities which distinguished him from
his contemporaries. (79-90.)
Conclusion. (91-94.)
Again, taking up but one section, B, II., the analysis is as
follows:--
II. There were some peculiarities which distinguished him from his
contemporaries. (79-90.)
A. Milton adopted the noblest qualities of every party--
1. Puritans. (80-84.)
a. They excited contempt. However
b. They were no vulgar fanatics; but
c. They derived their peculiarities from their daily
contemplation of superior beings and eternal
interests.
d. Thus the Puritan was made up of two men,--the one
all self-abasement, the other all pride.
e. Résumé of character of Puritans.
2. Heathens were passionate lovers of freedom. (85.)
3. Royalists had individual independence, learning, and
polite manners of the Court.
B. But he alone fought the battle for the freedom of the mind.
(88.)
1. This led him to discard parties; and (89)
2. To dare the boldest literary services. (90.)
The fundamental principle guiding in the selection of material is
unity. It decides what may with propriety be admitted to the essay,
and it determines in part what must be left out. Another principle,
secondary to this, is scale of treatment. If the essay is to be short,
only essentials may be used; if long, many related sub-topics must
take their subordinate positions in the essay.
Arrangement.
Following the selection of material comes its arrangement. Here also
there is greater difficulty than was experienced in narration or
description. Though the same principles of Coherence and Mass guide,
they are more difficult to apply. The seat of the difficulty is in the
elusiveness of the material. It is hard to picture distinctly the
value and relation of the different topics of an essay. Suppose the
subject is "The Evils of War." The first paragraph might contain a
general statement announcing the theme. Then these topics are to be
discussed:--
1. The effect on the _morale_ of a nation.
2. The suffering of friends and relatives.
3. The destruction of life.
4. The backward step in civilization.
5. The destruction of property.
The order could not be much worse. How shall a better be obtained?
Use Cards for Subdivisions.
The most helpful suggestion regarding a method of making the material
in some degree visible, capable of being grasped, is that each
subdivision be placed on a separate card, and that, as the material is
gathered, it be put upon the card containing the group to which it
belongs. By different arrangements of these cards the writer can find
most easily the order that is natural and effective. It is much like
anagrams, this ordering of matter in an essay. Take these letters,
s-l-y-w-a-r-e, and in your head try to put them together to make a
word; you will have some trouble, probably. If, however, these same
letters be put upon separate slips of paper, you may with some
arrangement get out the rather common word, lawyers. It is much the
same with topic cards in exposition; they can be moved and rearranged
in all possible ways, and at last an order distinctly better than any
other will be found.
Speaking of cards, it might be well to say that the habit of putting
down a fact or an idea bearing on a topic just as soon as it occurs to
one is invaluable for a writer. All men have good memories; some
persons have better ones than others. But there is no one who does not
forget; and each catches himself very often saying, "I knew that, but
I forgot it." It is a fact, not perhaps complimentary, that paper
tablets are surer than the tablets of memory.
An Outline.
In exposition, where the whole attention of the reader should be given
to the thought, where more than ever the mind should be freed from
every hindrance, and its whole energy directed to getting the meaning,
the greatest care should be given to making a plan. No person who has
attained distinction in prose has worked without a plan. Any piece of
literature, even the most discursive, has in it something of plan; but
in literature of the first rank the plan is easily discovered. How
clear it is in Macaulay's essay has been seen. In Burke it is yet more
logical and exact. However beautiful a piece may be, however naturally
one thought grows out of another, as though it were always so and
could be no other way, be sure it is so because of some man's thought,
on account of careful planning. And it may be said without a chance of
contradiction that when an essay has been well planned it is half
done, and that half by far the harder. "We can hardly at the present
day understand what Menander meant, when he told a man who inquired as
to the progress of his comedy that he had finished it, not having yet
written a single line, because he had constructed the action of it in
his mind. A modern critic would have assured him that the merit of his
piece depended on the brilliant things which arose under his pen as he
went along." The brilliant things are but the gargoyles and the
scrolls, the ornaments of the structure; and when so brilliant as to
attract especial attention, they divert the mind from the total effect
much as a series of beautiful marbles set between those perfect
columns would have ruined the Parthenon. It was not in any single
feature--not in pediment, column, or capital, not in frieze,
architrave, or tympanum--that its glorious beauty lay, but in the
simple strength and the harmonious symmetry of the whole, in the
general plan. Webster planned his orations, Newman planned his essays,
Carlyle planned his Frederick the Great. Their works are not a
momentary inspiration; they are the result of forethought, long and
painstaking. The absolute essential in the structure of an essay, that
without which it will fail to arrive anywhere, that compared to which
all ornament, all fine writing, is but sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal, that absolute essential is the total effect secured by making
a plan.
Mass the End.
The principles governing the arrangement of material are Mass and
Coherence. Both are equally essential, but in practice some questions
regarding Mass are settled first. _The important positions in an essay
are the beginning and the end; of these the more important is the
end._ In this place, then, there shall be those sentences or those
paragraphs which deserve that distinction. Here frequently stands the
theme, the conclusion of the whole matter, that for which the
composition was constructed. So that if one wished to know the theme
of an essay, he would be justified in looking at its conclusion to
find it. In the essay on "Milton," it is evident from the last
paragraph that Macaulay never intended it to be only a criticism of
his poetry, though he has devoted many pages to this discussion. Here
is just the last sentence: "Nor do we envy the man who can study
either the life or the writings of the great poet and patriot without
aspiring to emulate, not indeed the sublime works with which his
genius has enriched our literature, but the zeal with which he labored
for the public good, the fortitude with which he endured every private
calamity, the lofty disdain with which he looked down on temptations
and dangers, the deadly hatred which he bore to bigots and tyrants,
and the faith which he so sternly kept with his country and his fame."
Notice the last sentence of a delightful essay by George William
Curtis; one could easily guess the contents and the title. "Fear of
yourself, fear of your own rebuke, fear of betraying your
consciousness of your duty and not doing it--that is the fear that
Lovelace loved better than Lucasta; that is the fear which Francis,
having done his duty, saved, and justly called it honor." Examples of
the ending in which the theme of the essay stands in the place of
greatest distinction are so plentiful that there needs no collector to
establish the assertion.
In a single paragraph of exposition not exceeding two or three hundred
words, it is a very safe rule for a beginner always to have the theme
in the last sentence; or if he has stated the theme in the opening, to
have a restatement of it in different form, fuller and more explicit
usually, sometimes a shorter and more epigrammatic form, in the
conclusion.
If the pupil should obey this little rule to have at the end something
worthy of the position, a vast amount of time would be saved both to
teacher and to pupil. It can be safely said that not more than one
half the essays end when the thought ends. Instead of quitting when he
has finished, the writer dribbles on, repeating in diluted fashion
what he has said with some force before, and often introducing matters
that are not within hailing distance of his theme. When one has said
what he started out to say, it is time to stop. If he stops then, he
will have something important in the place of distinction.
The Beginning.
_The position of second importance is the beginning._ If but a
paragraph be written, the topic is usually announced at the opening.
In short essays this is the most frequent beginning, and it may safely
be used at all times. Exposition is explanation; the natural thing is
to let the reader know at once what the writer is attempting to
explain. Then the reader knows what the author is talking about and
can relate every statement to the general proposition. To delay the
topic compels the reader to hold in mind all that has been said up to
the time the real theme is uncovered; this frequently results in
inattention. In the little book by Mr. Palmer, the first paragraph
opens with these two sentences: "English as a study has four aims: the
mastery of our language as a science, as a history, as a joy, and as a
tool. I am concerned with but one, the mastery of it as a tool." So,
too, the essay of which the last sentence has been quoted begins:
"These are very precious words of Lovelace:--
'I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Loved I not honor more.'
And Francis First's message to his mother after Pavia, 'All is lost
but honor,' is in the same key."
Instead of announcing the theme at the very beginning, in essays of
some length there is sometimes an account of the occasion which led to
the composition. Macaulay has used this opening in the essay on
"Milton." Second, the opening may be the clearing away of matters
unrelated in reality, but which people have commonly associated with
the topic. And third, the essay may open with definitions of the terms
that will be used in the discussion. Of these three, only the first
will be much used by young persons. It makes an easy approach to the
subject, and avoids the unpleasant jar of an abrupt start. It is
common with Macaulay, Lowell, and many essayists that write in an
easy, almost conversational style.
There is one case in which the theme should not be announced at the
opening. If the proposition were distasteful, if it were generally
believed to be false, it would not be policy to announce it at the
beginning. However reasonable men may be, it is still true that reason
is subject to emotions and beliefs to a greater degree than is
praiseworthy. If a man should open an address upon Abraham Lincoln by
saying that he was a cringing coward, he would have difficulty to get
an audience to hear anything he said after that, no matter how much
truth he spoke. The author of such a statement would be so disliked
that nothing would win for him favor. When an unwelcome theme is to be
discussed, it must be approached carefully by successive steps which
prepare the reader for the reception of a truth that before seemed
false to him. In this case the theme will be stated at the end, but
not at the beginning of the essay.
Get started as soon as you can, and stop when you have finished; by so
doing you will have important matters in those places which will
emphasize them. Shun the allurements of high-sounding introductions
and conclusions. Professor Marston used to tell his pupils to write
the best introduction they could, to fashion their most gorgeous
peroration, and to be sure to have the discussion clear, logical, and
well expressed. Then he said that when he had cut off both ends, he
generally had left a good essay. An essay should be done much as a
business man does business. He does not want the gentleman who calls
on him during business hours to bow and scatter compliments before he
takes up the matter which brought him there; nor does he care to see
him swaying on the doorknob after the business is finished. To the
business at once, and leave off when you have done. Introductions,
exordiums, perorations, and conclusions are worthless unless they be
in reality a part of the discussion and necessary to the understanding
of the whole.
Proportion in Treatment.
Everything, however, cannot occupy the first and last places. How can
other matters be emphasized? To refer to the parallel of the map, in
order to make people see that the Mississippi River is longer than the
Hudson, the designer made it longer on the map. That is exactly what
is done in an essay. If one matter is of greater importance than
another, it should take up a larger part of the essay. When Macaulay
passes over Milton's sonnets with a paragraph, while he devotes
sixteen paragraphs to "Paradise Lost," he indicates by the greater
mass the greater value he ascribes to the epic. So again, a very good
proof that he did not intend this essay to be a literary criticism
primarily, another evidence beside the closing paragraph, is found in
his division of the whole essay. To Milton's poetry he has given
forty-one paragraphs, and to his character fifty-two paragraphs. The
most common way of emphasizing important divisions of an essay is by
increasing the length of treatment.
Emphasis of Emotion.
However, there are times when this cannot be done: a point may be so
well known that it needs no amplification. In such a case there may be
an emphasis of emotion; that is, the statement may be made with an
intensity that counterbalances the weight of the larger treatment. It
might be said that the one has great velocity and little mass, while
the other has great mass and little velocity. By hurling forth the
smaller mass at a higher velocity, the momentum may be as great as
when the larger mass moves with little velocity. The dynamic force of
burning words may give an emphasis to a paragraph out of all
proportion to the length of treatment. In one paragraph Macaulay
dashes aside all the defenses of Charles. He writes:--
"The advocates of Charles, like the advocates of other
malefactors against whom overwhelming evidence is produced,
generally decline all controversy about the facts, and
content themselves with calling testimony to character. He
had so many private virtues! And had James II. no private
virtues? Was Oliver Cromwell, his bitterest enemies
themselves being the judges, destitute of private virtues?
And what, after all, are the virtues ascribed to Charles? A
religious zeal, not more sincere than that of his son, and
fully as weak and narrow-minded, and a few of the ordinary
household decencies which half the tombstones in England
claim for those who lie beneath them. A good father! A good
husband! Ample apologies indeed for fifteen years of
persecution, tyranny, and falsehood." ("Essay on Milton.")
Phrases indicating Emphasis.
Moreover, phrases and sentences may be introduced to show that a
writer considers some topics of equal importance to others, or even of
greater importance, though they do not demand the same length of
treatment. _Of equal importance, not less weighty, beyond question the
most pertinent,_ illustrate what is meant by phrases which indicate
values. These and many of their class which the occasion will call
forth are necessary to give certain topics the rank they hold in the
writer's conception of the whole subject. In discussing the temper and
character of the American people, Burke ascribes it to six powerful
causes. The relative value of these is indicated in the last three by
phrases. I quote only the opening sentences.
"First, the people of the colonies are descendants of
Englishmen."... "They were further confirmed in this
pleasing error by the form of their provincial legislative
assemblies."... "If anything were wanting to this necessary
operation of the form of government, religion would have
given it a complete effect."... "There is a circumstance
attending these [southern] colonies which makes the spirit
of liberty _still more_ high and haughty than in those to
the northward."... "Permit me, Sir, to add another
circumstance which contributes _no mean part_ towards the
growth and effect of this untractable spirit."... "The last
cause of this disobedient spirit in the colonies is _hardly
less powerful_ than the rest."[21]
Emphasis is indicated, then, by position; by the length of treatment;
by dynamic statement; and by phrases denoting values.
Coherence.
Coherence is the second principle which modifies the internal
structure of a composition. That arrangement should be sought for that
places in proximity one to another those ideas which are most closely
related. More than in composition dealing with things, in those forms
of discourse dealing with intangible, invisible ideas,--with thoughts,
with speculations,--the greatest care is necessary to make one topic
spring of necessity from a preceding topic. And this is not impossible
when the material has been carefully selected. The principal divisions
of the subject bear a necessary and logical relation to the whole
theme, and the subordinate divisions have a similar relation to their
main topic. In the essay on "Milton," Macaulay is seeking to commend
his hero to the reader for two reasons: first, because his writings
"are powerful, not only to delight, but to elevate and purify;"
second, because "the zeal with which he labored for the public good,
the fortitude with which he endured every private calamity, the lofty
disdain with which he looked down on temptations and dangers, the
deadly hatred which he bore to bigots and tyrants, and the faith which
he so sternly kept with his country and with his fame" made him a
patriot worthy of emulation. We feel instinctively that this
arrangement, poetry first and character next, and not the reverse, is
the right order. To discuss character first and poetry last would have
been ruinous to Macaulay's purpose. Notice next the development of a
sub-topic in the same essay. Only one sentence from a paragraph is
given. The defenders of Charles do not choose to discuss "the great
points of the question," but "content themselves with exposing some of
the crimes and follies to which public commotions necessarily give
birth." "Be it so." "Many evils were produced by the Civil War." "It
is the character of such revolutions that we always see the worst of
them first." Yet "there is only one cure for the evils which newly
acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom." "Therefore it is
that we decidedly approve of the conduct of Milton and the other wise
and good men who, in spite of much that was ridiculous and hateful in
the conduct of their associates, stood firmly by the cause of public
liberty." No other arrangement of these paragraphs seems possible. To
shift the sequence would break the chain. Each paragraph grows
naturally from the paragraph preceding. Closely related topics stand
together. There is Coherence.
Transition Phrases.
The logical connection between topics which have been well arranged
may be made more evident by the skillful use of words and phrases that
indicate the relation of what has been said to what is to be said.
These phrases are guideposts pointing the direction the next topic
will take. They advise the reader where he is and whither he is going.
Cardinal Newman, who had the ability to write not only so that he
could be understood, but so that he could not be misunderstood, made
frequent use of these guides. The question in one of his essays is
"whether knowledge, that is, acquirement, is the real principle of
enlargement, or whether that is not rather something beyond it." These
fragments of sentences open a series of paragraphs. 1. "For instance,
let a person ... go for the first time where physical nature puts on
her wilder and more awful forms," etc. 2. "Again, the view of the
heavens which the telescope opens," etc. 3. "And so again, the sight
of beasts of prey and other foreign animals," etc. 4. "Hence Physical
Science generally," etc. 5. "Again, the study of history," etc. 6.
"And in like manner, what is called seeing the world," etc. 7. "And
then again, the first time the mind comes across the arguments and
speculations of unbelievers," etc. 8. "On the other hand, Religion has
its own enlargement," etc. 9. "Now from these instances, ... it is
plain, first, that the communication of knowledge certainly is either
a condition or a means of that sense of enlargement, or enlightenment
of which at this day we hear so much in certain quarters: this cannot
be denied; but next, it is equally plain, that such communication is
not the whole of the process." How extremely valuable such phrases are
may be realized from the fact that, though the matter is entirely
unknown, any one can know the relation of the parts of this essay,
whither it tends, and can almost supply Newman's thoughts.
Summary and Transition.
To secure coherence between the main divisions of an essay, instead of
words and phrases, there are employed sentences and paragraphs of
summary and transition. Summaries gather up what has been said on the
topic, much like a conclusion to a theme; transitions show the
relation between the topic already discussed and the one next to be
treated. Summaries at the conclusion of any division of the whole
subject are like the seats on a mountain path which are conveniently
arranged to give the climber a needed rest, and to spread out at his
feet the features of the landscape through which he has made his way.
Summaries put the reader in possession of the situation up to that
point, and make him ready for the next stage of the advance. At the
end of the summary there is frequently a transition, either a few
sentences or sometimes a short paragraph. The sentence or paragraph of
transition is much more frequent than the paragraph which summarizes.
The examples of these summaries and transitions are so frequent in
Macaulay and Burke that one transition is sufficient to indicate their
use. Macaulay writes:--
"There are several minor poems of Milton on which we would
willingly make a few remarks.... Our limits, however,
prevent us from discussing the point at length. We hasten on
to that extraordinary production which the general suffrage
of critics has placed in the highest class of human
compositions." ("Essay on Milton.")
To conclude, exposition embraces definition and explanation.
Definition is usually too concise to be clear, and needs an added
explanation. In any piece of exposition there must be unity, and this
principle will dispense with everything that is not essential to the
theme; there must be judicious massing, that those parts of the essay
deserving emphasis may receive it; and there must be a coherence
between the parts, large and small, so close and intimate that the
progress from one topic to another shall be steady and without
hindrance. Unity, Mass, and Coherence should be the main
considerations in composition the aim of which is to explain a term or
a proposition.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES.
QUESTIONS.
MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON MILTON.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 103.)
What makes up the introduction of this essay? Does he use the same
method in the Essay on Addison? Take a volume of his essays and see
how many begin in similar fashion. At what paragraph of this Essay on
Milton does the introduction end? Would it be as well to omit it? Give
reasons for your opinion.
Make an analysis of his argument of the proposition, "No poet has ever
triumphed over greater difficulties than Milton."
Does Macaulay give a definition of poetry on page 13, or is it an
exposition of the term?
What figure of speech do you find in the last sentence of the
paragraph on page 43?
When Macaulay begins to discuss "the public conduct of Milton," what
method of introduction does he adopt? What value is there in it?
Do the trifles mentioned at the end of the paragraph on page 55 make
an anticlimax?
What arrangement of sentences in the paragraph does he use most,
individual or serial?
Does he close his paragraphs with a repetition of the topic more
frequently than with a single detail emphasizing the topic?
Is his last sentence, in case it is a repetition of the topic, longer
or shorter than the topic sentence?
Does Macaulay frequently use epigrams? antitheses?
Find all transition paragraphs.
Find ten full sentence transitions outside of the transition
paragraphs.
Where, in such paragraphs, is the topic sentence?
In this essay find examples of the five methods of expounding a
proposition.
Which method does Macaulay use oftenest?
Is his treatment of the subject concrete?
What advantage is there in such treatment?
OF KINGS' TREASURIES.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 142.)
Do you think the title good?
Is Ruskin wise in disclosing his subject at once?
In section 3 what purpose does the first paragraph fulfill? What
method of exposition is adopted in the last paragraph? What method in
section 4?
For what purpose is the first paragraph of section 5 introduced? Is
the last paragraph of this section a digression?
Do you think the last sentence of section 9 upon the topic announced
in the first sentence? Where does Ruskin begin to treat the second
topic? Should there be two paragraphs?
Find the genus and differentia in the definition of "a good book of
the hour."
What is the use of the analogy in section 13?
What figure do you find in section 14?
Do you think a large part of section 30 a digression?
What do you think of the structure of sentences 4 and 8 in section 32?
Could you improve it by a change of punctuation?
What is the effect of the supposed case at the end of section 33? Is
it a fair deduction? Is it at the right place in the paragraph, and
why?
Where would you divide the paragraph in section 37?
Is the example in section 36 a fair one, and does it prove the case?
What is a very common method with Ruskin of connecting paragraphs?
Could you break up the sixth sentence of section 31 so that it would
be better?
If his audience had been hostile to him would he have been fortunate
in some of his assertions? Make an analysis of the whole essay. Does
he seem to you to have digressed from his topic? At what point? Should
it be two essays?
What led Ruskin into this long criticism of English character?
Could you include all the main topics that Ruskin has included, and by
a change in proportion keep the essay on the subject?
WEBSTER'S BUNKER HILL ORATION.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 56.)
Number the paragraphs in this oration.
Why is paragraph 3 introduced?
What method of development is used in paragraph 7? In paragraph 8?
In how many paragraphs is the last sentence short?
In how many is the last sentence a repetition of the topic?
What purpose is served in paragraphs 8, 9, and 10?
In paragraph 12 note the use of contrast.
What kind of development in paragraph 27?
Analyze the oration from paragraph 28.
Does he place the topic sentence near the beginning of the paragraphs?
Does he frequently use transition sentences?
Do you think the outline of this as distinct as that of Macaulay's
Essay on Milton? Should it be?
What figure of speech in the word "axe" in paragraph 32, and "bayonet"
in paragraph 36?
What figure at the end of paragraph 40?
Does he use figures as frequently as Macaulay?
EXERCISES.
This year, taking up the study of exposition, offers especially good
opportunities for exercises in paragraph and sentence construction.
During the first eight or ten weeks the pupils will write isolated
paragraphs. The unity and arrangement of these should be carefully
criticised. Also the exercises should be arranged so that the pupils
will employ all forms of paragraphs. Before he begins to write a
paragraph, the pupil should know what he is to include in it, and in
what order; otherwise the paragraph will fail in unity and effective
massing. Paragraphs are made by forethought, not by inspiration.
Following the writing of isolated paragraphs is the composition of the
long essay. The first thing is a study of outlines. This will take up
six or eight weeks. To secure the view of the whole in different
arrangements, use the cards.
When the class has gained some grasp of outlines, the writing of
essays should be begun. At the option of the pupils, they may write
some of the essays already outlined, or study new themes. Two or three
paragraphs are all that can be well done for a lesson. Good, not much,
should be the ideal. In this way a single essay may occupy a class
from three to six weeks.
It should be remembered that these exercises are written consciously
for practice. They are exercises--no more. Their purpose is to give
skill and judgment in composition. It is because they are exercises
that they may be somewhat stereotyped and artificial in form, just as
exercises in music may be artificially constructed to meet the
difficulties the young musician will have to confront.
During the writing of these essays special attention should be given
to sentence construction. The inclusion of just the ideas needed in
the sentence and no more; the massing that makes prominent the thought
that deserves prominence; and the nice adjustment of one sentence to
the next: these objects should be striven for during this semester.
1, 2. Write definitions of such common terms as jingoism, civil
service, gold standard, the submerged tenth, sweat shop, internal
revenue, cyclonic area, foreign policy, imperialism, free silver,
mugwump, political pull, Monroe doctrine, etc. Five or six terms which
are not found in a dictionary will make a hard exercise; and two or
three lessons in definitions will set the pupils in the direction of
accurate and adequate statements.
For isolated paragraphs write upon the following subjects:--
3. Novel reading gives one a knowledge of the world not to be gained
in any other way. Particulars.
4. Novel reading unfits people for the actualities of life. Specific
instances.
5. Among the numerous uses of biography three stand forth
preëminent,--it furnishes the material of history, it lets us into the
secrets of the good and great, and it sets before us attainable ideals
of noble humanity. Repetition.
6. It is beyond any possibility of successful contradiction that the
examination system encourages cheating. Proofs.
7. Electric cars and automobiles are driving horses out of the cities.
Instances.
8. Every great development in the culture of a nation has followed a
great war. Proofs.
9. From the following general subjects have the pupils state definite
themes. Write isolated paragraphs on a few of them.
Political Parties.
War.
Books.
Machines.
Inventions.
Great Men.
Planets.
Civil Service.
Coeducation.
Roads.
Tramps.
Boycotts.
10. Place another similar list on the board and have the pupils vote
on what three they prefer. Use these in making outlines. Then select
more.
Supposing they had settled upon this theme: The tramp is the logical
result of our economic system; have it outlined. The result might be
as follows:--
A. What is a tramp?
1. Who become tramps?
2. Their number.
3. Where are they?
B. Why is he a tramp?
1. Inventions have increased the power of production more rapidly
than the demand for products has grown.
a. On the farm.
b. Transportation.
c. Factories.
d. Piecework.
2. Women now do much work formerly done by men.
a. As clerks.
b. As typewriters, stenographers, and bookkeepers.
c. In the professions.
3. The result of these causes is that many men willing to work
are out of employment.
C. What must be done?
11. Fill out the following outline.
Subject: The Thermometer.
A. Its Invention.
B. Its Construction.
C. Its Value and Uses.
12. Outline six more themes.
13. Beginning the writing of long essays, write essays in sections.
Using "Tramps" for an illustration, as it is outlined it contains
about twelve paragraphs. All of section "A" may be included in one
paragraph. "B, 1" may be a paragraph of repetition; "a," "b," "c,"
"d," may each make a paragraph of particulars. By stating "B, 2" in
the following way, it may be a paragraph of "what not:" It was once
considered unladylike for women to engage in any occupation outside of
the home. Men said that they could not retain, etc.--Go on with the
things woman could not do, closing with a statement of what she does
do.
"B, 2, a." On account of their fidelity, honesty, and courtesy, women
succeed as clerks. Repetition.
b. The quickness of their intelligence and the accuracy of their
work have made women more desirable for routine work in an
office than men. Comparison and Contrast.
c. There are certain feminine qualities which especially fit women
for the practice of teaching and medicine. Details.
"B, 3." By Combination of Forms.
"C." By Details.
It would be a pleasure to go on with this list of exercises, but it is
unnecessary and it is unwise. These indicate the objects to be sought
for in the exercises. They are not a specific course, though they
might suit a certain environment. Each teacher knows her own
pupils,--their attainments and their interests. The subjects should be
chosen to suit their special cases. Only make them interesting; put
them into such form that there is something to get hold of; and adapt
them so that all the topics to be studied will be illustrated in the
work. The pupils should be able to write any form of paragraph, to
arrange it so that any idea is made prominent, and to make easy
transitions. Arrange the exercises to accomplish definite results.
During the third year, attention should be given to words and to the
refinements of elegant composition. These the pupils will best learn
by careful watch of the literature. The teacher should be quick to
feel the strength and beauty of any passage and able to point out the
means adopted to obtain the delightful effect. Clearness first is the
thing to be desired; if to this can be added force and a degree of
elegance during the last two years, the work of the instructor has
been well done.
* * * * *
CHAPTER VI
ARGUMENT
Argument has been defined as that form of discourse the purpose of
which is to convince the reader of the truth or falsity of a
proposition. It is closely allied with exposition. To convince a
person, it is first necessary that the proposition be explained to
him. This is all that is necessary in many cases. Did men decide all
matters without prejudice, and were they willing to accept the truth
at any cost, even to discard the beliefs that have been to them the
source of greatest happiness, the simple explanation would be
sufficient. However, as men are not all-wise, and as they are not
always "reasonable," they are found to hold different opinions
regarding the same subject; and one person often wishes to convince
another of the error of his beliefs. Men continually use the words
_because_ and _therefore;_ indeed, a great deal of writing has in it
an element of argument.
From the fact that argument and exposition are so nearly alike, it
follows that they will be governed by much the same principles. As
argument, in addition to explaining, seeks to convince, it is
necessary, in addition to knowing how to explain, to know what is
considered convincing,--what are proofs; and secondly, what is the
best order in which to arrange proofs.
Induction and Deduction.
Arguments have been classified as inductive and deductive.[22]
Induction includes arguments that proceed from individual cases to
establish a general truth. Deduction comprises arguments that proceed
from a general truth to establish the proposition in specific
instances, or groups of instances.
Syllogism. Premises.
If one should say "Socrates is mortal because he is a man," or
"Socrates will die because all men are mortal," or "Socrates is a man,
therefore he will die," by any of these he has expressed a truth which
all men accept. In any of these expressions are bound up two
propositions, called premises, from which a third proposition, called
a conclusion, is derived. If expanded, the three propositions assume
this form: All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates
is mortal. This is termed a syllogism. A syllogism consists of a major
premise, a predication about all the members of a general class of
objects; a minor premise, a predication that includes an individual or
a group of individuals in the general class named by the major
premise; and a conclusion, the proposition which is derived from the
relation existing between the other two propositions. The propositions
above would be classified as follows:--
Major premise: All men are mortal, a predication about _all_
men.
Minor premise: Socrates is a man, including an individual in
the general class.
Conclusion: Socrates is mortal.
Terms.
In every syllogism there are three terms,--major, minor, and middle.
The middle term is found in both the premises, but not in the
conclusion. It is the link connecting the major and minor terms. The
major term is usually the predicate of the major premise and the
predicate of the conclusion. The minor term is the subject of the
minor premise and the subject of the conclusion. "Men" is the middle
term, "are mortal" the major term, and "Socrates," the minor term.
Enthymeme.
It is rarely the case in literature that the syllogism is fully
stated: generally one of the premises is omitted. Such a form of
statement is termed an enthymeme. "Socrates will die because all men
are mortal" is an enthymeme. The minor premise has been omitted.
"Socrates is mortal because he is a man" is also an enthymeme, because
the major premise which states that "all men are mortal" has been
omitted.
The conclusions arrived at by means of syllogisms are irresistible,
provided the form be correct and the premises be true. It is
impossible here to discuss the forms of syllogisms; they are too many.
It will be of value, however, to call attention to a few of the
commonest errors in syllogisms.
Definition of Terms.
The first error arises from a misunderstanding of terms. It is often
said that George Eliot is a poet; there are some who disagree. Certain
it is that she wrote in verse form; and it is true that she has
embodied noble thoughts in verse; but it is quite as true that she
lacks "the bird-note." If this were reduced to a syllogism, it would
not be a discussion of whether George Eliot be a poet, but rather a
discussion of what is a poet. Stated, it reads: All persons who embody
noble thoughts in verse form are poets. George Eliot is a person who
has embodied noble thoughts in verse form. Therefore George Eliot is a
poet. If the major premise of this syllogism be granted, the
conclusion is unquestionable. The terms should be defined at the
beginning; then this error, springing from a misunderstanding of
terms, perhaps the most common, would be avoided.
Undistributed Middle.
The second error arises from the fact that the middle term is not
"distributed;" that is, the major premise makes no statement about all
the members of a class. The premises in the following are true, but
the conclusion is nonsense.
A horse is an animal.
Man is an animal.
Therefore, man is a horse.
The middle term, in this case "animal," must be "distributed;" some
statement must be made of _all_ animals. The following would be true:
All animals have life; therefore man has life. The major premise
predicates life of all animals.
False Premises.
A third error in a syllogism is in the premises themselves. If either
premise be false, the conclusion is not necessarily true. A parent
might say to his son, "You are doing wrong, and you will pay the
penalty for it soon." Generally he would be right. However, if this
were put into a syllogism, it would read as follows: All persons who
do wrong pay the penalty soon. You are such a person. Therefore, etc.
Admitting the son is breaking the law, the fact is that the major
premise is not always true, and the conclusion holds the weakness of
the weak premise. Again, supposing everybody accepted the general
truth, "All unrepentant sinners will be punished." The minister might
then say to a young man, "You will certainly be punished, because all
unrepentant sinners will be punished." The young man might deny the
suppressed minor premise, which is, "You are an unrepentant sinner."
Both premises must be true if they prove anything. The conclusion
contains the weakness of either premise. In both of these examples
note that the mistake is in the premise which does not appear. In an
enthymeme, great care should be taken with the suppressed premise. Be
sure it is true when you use this form of argument, and be sure to
look for it and state it in full when examining another's argument. It
is a common way of hiding a weak point to cover it in the suppressed
premise of an enthymeme.
Method of Induction.
Induction, which proceeds directly opposite to the method of
deduction, is the method by which all our ultimate knowledge has been
obtained. By observing individual instances man has gathered a great
store of general truths. There was a time when the first man would not
have been justified in saying, "The sun will rise in the east
to-morrow." The general law had not been established. To-day it is
practically certain that the sun will rise in the east to-morrow
morning, because it has done so for thousands of years; the large
number of instances establishes the general truth. Yet there may come
a day when it will rise in the south, or not rise at all. Until every
case has been tried and found to conform to the law, theoretically man
cannot be absolutely certain of any general truth. There may come an
exception to the general rule that all men must die. So far, however,
there is no experience to justify any man in hoping to escape death.
"As sure as death" means in practice absolutely sure, though this is
not what is called a perfect induction; that is, an induction in which
every possible case has been included. "All the other States are
smaller than Texas" is a perfect induction, but it forms no basis for
argument. All the cases must be known for a perfect induction; there
is no unknown to argue to. This, then, is only a short statement of
many individual truths, and has but little of value. Induction that is
imperfect is more valuable; for with many cases the probability
becomes so strong that it is a practical certainty. It is the method
of science.
More valuable for literature is another division of arguments into
arguments from cause, arguments from sign, and arguments from example.
Arguments from Cause.
Arguments from cause include those propositions which, if they were
granted, would account for the fact or proposition maintained. The
decisive test is to suppose the proposition to be true; then, if it
will account for the condition, it is an argument from cause. A child
holds its finger in a flame; therefore its finger is burned. If the
first proposition be supposed to be true, it will account for a burned
finger. It is an argument from cause, and it is conclusive. Again, if
a man severs his carotid artery, he will die. If the first proposition
be supposed to be true, it will account for the man's subsequent
death. Now, supposing a man takes strychnine, he will die. This is not
quite so sure. If a stomach-pump were used or an antidote given, he
might not die. The cause has been hindered in its action, or another
cause has intervened to counterbalance the first. If, then, a cause be
adequate to produce the effect, and if it act unhindered or
unmodified, the effect will certainly follow the active cause. An
argument that uses as a premise such a cause may predicate its effect
as a conclusion with absolute certainty. Such an argument is
conclusive.
The argument from cause is used more frequently to establish a
probability than to prove a fact or proposition. However strong the
proofs of a statement may be, men hesitate to accept either the
statement or the proofs if the proposition is not plausible, or, as
people say, if "they do not understand it," or if "it is not
reasonable." If a murder be done and circumstances all point to your
friend, you do not believe your friend to be the criminal until some
fact is produced sufficient to cause your friend to commit the
crime,--until some motive is established. If it be shown that the
friend hated the murdered man and would be benefited by his death, a
motive is established,--the proposition is made plausible. A man could
"understand how he came to do it." The hatred and the benefit being
granted, they would account for his deed. It is an argument from
cause, used not as a proof, but to establish a probability. It makes
the proposition ready for proof.
Arguments from Sign.
The second class of arguments, arguments from sign, is most often used
for proof. If two facts or conditions always occur together, the
presence of one is a sign of the presence of the other. Cause and
effect are so related that if either be observed, it is an indication
of the other. No cause acts without a consequent effect; an effect is
a sure sign of a preceding cause. Supposing one should say, "Because
the flowers are dead, there was a frost," or "If ice has formed on the
river, it must have been cold," in both instances the argument would
be an argument from sign. Both also proceed from the effect to the
cause. Only a low temperature forms ice on the river; the argument
from effect to cause is conclusive. In the first case, the argument is
not conclusive, because flowers may die from other causes. In a case
like this, it is necessary to find all possible causes, and then by
testing each in succession to determine which could not have acted and
leave the one that is the only actual cause. A man is found dead;
death has resulted from natural causes, from murder, or from suicide.
Each possible cause would be tested; and by elimination of the other
possible causes the one right cause would be left. This method of
elimination is frequently employed in arguments from effect to cause.
When this method is used the alternatives should be few, else it gives
rise to confusion and to lack of attention caused by the tediousness
of the discussion. And an enumeration of all possible causes must be
made; for if one be omitted it may be the one that is in fact the
right one.
The relation between cause and effect is so intimate that the
occurrence of one may be regarded as a sure sign of the presence of
the other. If an effect is produced by only one cause, the presence of
the effect is a certain indication of the cause. If several causes
produce the same effect, some other methods must be used to determine
the cause operating in this special case.
Sequence and Cause.
In reasoning from effect to cause, one must be sure that he is dealing
with a cause. As effect follows cause, there is danger that anything
that follows another may be considered as caused by it. Because a man
died just after eating, it would not be quite reasonable to connect
eating and death as cause and effect. The fact is that death is surer
to follow starvation. The glow at evening is generally followed by
fair weather the next day; but the fair weather is not an effect of a
clear sunset. Common sense must be used to determine whether the
relation is one of cause and effect; something more than a simple
sequence is necessary.
Another argument from sign associates conditions that frequently occur
together, though one is not the cause of the other. "James is near,
because there is his blind father," means that James always
accompanies his father; where the father is, the son is too. If one
had noticed that potatoes planted at the full of the moon grew well,
and potatoes planted at other times did not thrive, he might say as a
result of years of observation that a certain crop would be a failure
because it was not planted at the right time. This argument might have
weight with ignorant people, but intelligent persons do not consider
it a sure sign. All signs belong to this class of arguments; they are
of value or worthless as they come true more or less frequently. Every
time there is an exception the argument is weakened; another case of
its working strengthens it. Where there is no sure relation like cause
and effect, the strength of the argument depends on the frequency of
the recurrence of the associated conditions.
A third argument from sign associates two effects of the same cause. A
lad on waking exclaims, "The window is covered with frost; I can go
skating to-day." The frost on the window is not the cause of the ice
on the river. Rather, both phenomena are results of the same cause.
This kind of argument is not necessarily conclusive; yet with others
it always strengthens a case.
Testimony is usually called an argument from sign. The assertion by
some one that a thing occurred is not sure proof; it is only a sign
that it occurred. People have said that they have seen witches,
ghosts, and sea serpents, and unquestionably believed it; men
generally do not accept their testimony. In a criminal case, it would
be difficult to accept the testimony of both sides. Though testimony
seems a strong argument, it is or it is not, according to the
conditions under which it is given. One would care little for the
testimony of an ignorant man in a matter that called for wisdom; he
would hesitate to accept the testimony of a man who claimed he saw,
but upon cross-examination could not report what he saw; and he would
not think it fair to be condemned upon the testimony of his enemies.
Books have been written upon evidence, but three principles are all
that are needed in ordinary arguments. First, the person giving
testimony must be capable of observation; second, he must be able to
report accurately what he has observed; third, he must have a desire
to tell the exact truth.
Arguments from Example.
The third large division comprises arguments from example. That is, if
a truth be asserted of an individual, it can therefore be predicated
of the class to which the individual belongs. For instance, if the
first time a person saw a giraffe, he observed that it was eating
grass, he would be justified in saying that giraffes are herbivorous.
All gold is yellow, heavy, and not corroded by acid, though no one has
tested it all. However, every giraffe does not have one ear brown and
the other gray because the first one seen happened to be so marked;
neither is all gold in the shape of ten-dollar gold pieces. Only
common sense will serve to pick out essential qualities; but if
essential and invariable qualities be selected, the argument from the
example of an individual to all members of its class is very powerful.
Analogies resemble examples. In exposition they are used for
illustration; in argument they are employed as proofs. Though two
things belong to different classes of objects, they may have some
qualities that are similar, and so an argument may be made from one to
another. "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" is a book written to
show how the physical laws hold true in the region of spirit. It is
not because an enemy sowed tares in a neighbor's field that there are
wicked men in the world; nor is it because a lover of jewels will sell
everything that he has to buy the pearl of greatest price that men
devote everything they have to the kingdom of heaven. Analogies prove
nothing. They clear up relations and often help the reader to
appreciate other arguments. They are valuable when the likeness is
broad and easily traced. They should never be used alone.
These, then, are the principal forms of argument: deduction and
induction; arguments from cause, from sign, and from example. Upon
these men depend when they wish to convince of truth or error.
Selection of Material.
In argument the material is selected with reference to its value as
proof. Every particle of matter must be carefully tested. While a
piece of material that could be omitted without loss to the
explanation may sometimes find a place in exposition, such a thing
must not occur in argument. As soon as a reader discovers that the
writer is off the track, either he loses respect for the author's
words, or he suspects him of trying to hide the weakness of his
position in a cloud of worthless and irrelevant matters. Every bit of
material should advance the argument one step; it should fill its
niche in the well-planned structure; it should contribute its part to
the strength of the whole.
Plan called The Brief.
When the material has been selected, it must be arranged. An argument
is a demonstration. Each of its parts is the natural result of what
has preceded, and, up to the last step, each part is the basis for the
next step. As in geometry a demonstration that omits one step in its
development, or, which comes to the same thing, puts the point out of
its logical order, is worthless as a demonstration, so in argument not
one essential step can be omitted, nor can it be misplaced. The plan
in an argument may be more evident than in exposition. We are a little
offended if the framework shows too plainly in exposition; but there
is no offense in a well-articulated skeleton in an argument. It is
quite the rule that the general plan and the main divisions of the
argument are announced at the very beginning. Any device that will
make the relation of the parts clearer should be used. Over and over
again the writer should arrange the cards with the topics until he is
certain that no other order is so good. The writing is a mere trifle
compared with the outline, called in argument the brief.
Though the brief is so essential, it is unfortunately a thing about
which but few suggestions can be given. The circumstances under which
arguments are written--especially whether written to defend a position
or to attack it--are so various that rules cannot be given. Still a
few general principles may be of value.
Climax.
Proofs should be arranged in a climax. This does not mean that the
weakest argument should come first, and the next stronger should
follow, and so on until the last and strongest is reached. It is
necessary to begin with something that will catch the attention; and
in argument it is frequently a proof strong enough to convince the
reader that the writer knows what he is contending for, and that he
can strike a hard blow. Then again, it is evident that in all
arguments there are main points in the discussion that must be
established by points of minor importance. The main points should be
arranged in a logical climax, and the sub-topics which go to support
one of the main divisions should have their climax. At the end of the
whole should be the strongest and the most comprehensive argument. It
should be a general advance of the whole line of argument, including
all the propositions that have previously been called into action,
sweeping everything before it.
Inductive precedes Deductive.
To gain this climax what kind of arguments should precede? Of
inductive and deductive, the inductive proofs generally go first. The
advance from particular instances to general truths is the best suited
to catch the attention, for men think with individual examples, and
general truths make little appeal to them. Moreover, if one is
addressing people of opposing views,--and in most cases he is, else
why is he arguing?--it is unwise to begin with bald statements of
unwelcome truths. They will be rejected without consideration. They
can with advantage be delayed until they are reached in the regular
development, and the reader has been prepared for their reception.
General truths and their application by deductive arguments usually
stand late in the brief.
Cause precedes Sign.
Of arguments from cause, sign, or example, it is ordinarily wise to
place arguments from cause first. A person does not listen to any
explanation of an unknown truth until he knows that the explanation is
plausible; that the cause assigned is adequate to produce the result.
After one knows that the cause is sufficient and may have brought
about the result, he is in a position to learn that it is the very
cause that produced the effect. Arguments from cause are very rarely
conclusive proofs of fact. They only establish a probability. And it
would be unwise to prove that a thing might be a possibility after one
had attempted to prove that it is a fact. It would be a long step
backward, a retreat. Therefore arguments from cause, unless absolutely
conclusive proof of fact, should not come last; but by other
arguments,--by testimony, by example, by analogy,--the possibility,
which has been reached by the argument from cause, may be established
as a fact.
Example follows Sign.
Of the two, sign and example, example generally follows sign. In
arguments about human affairs, examples seldom prove anything; for
under similar conditions one person may not act like another. Though
this be true, the argument from example is one of the most
effective--it is not at all conclusive--in that class of cases where
oratory is combined with argument to convince and persuade. This is
because men learn most readily from examples. To reason about matters
of conduct on abstract principles of morality convinces but few; to
point to a Lincoln or a Franklin has persuaded thousands. Examples are
of most use in enforcing and illustrating and strengthening a point
already established, and they generally follow arguments from sign.
Refutation.
One other class of arguments finds a place in debate: namely, indirect
arguments. It is often as much an advantage to a debater to dispose of
objections as it is to establish his own case. This is because a
question usually has two alternatives. If one can refute the arguments
in favor of the opponent's position, he has by that very process
established his own. If the points of the refutation are of minor
importance and are related to any division of his own direct argument,
the refutation of such points should be taken up in connection with
the related parts of the direct argument. If, however, it is an
argument of some weight and should be considered separate and apart
from the direct argument, it is generally wisest to proceed to its
demolition at the end of the direct argument and before the conclusion
of the whole. For then the whole weight of the direct argument will be
thrown into the refutation and will render every word so much the more
destructive. Again, if the opposing argument be very strong and have
taken complete possession of the audience, it must be attacked and
disposed of at the very beginning. Otherwise it is impossible for the
direct argument to make any advance.
From these suggestions one derives the general principle that each
case must be considered by itself. There will be cases of conflict
among the rules, and there must be a careful weighing of methods.
Common sense and patient labor are the most valuable assistants in
arranging a powerful argument.
It hardly needs to be said that the suggestions made in the chapter on
Exposition regarding Mass and Coherence should be observed here. In
argument as in exposition, topics are emphasized by position, and by
proportion in the scale of treatment. Here as there, matters that are
closely related in thought should be connected in the discourse, and
matters that are not related in thought should not be associated in
the essay.
It will be an advantage now to look through "Conciliation with the
Colonies" and note its general plan of structure. Only the main
divisions of this powerful oration can be given, as to make a full
brief would deprive this piece of literature of half its value for
study.
Analysis of Burke's Oration.
Mr. Burke begins by saying that it is "an awful subject or there is
none this side of the grave." He states that he has studied the
question for years, and while Parliament has pursued a vacillating
policy and one aggravating to the colonies, he has a fixed policy and
one sure to restore "the former unsuspecting confidence in the Mother
Country." His policy is simple peace. This by way of introduction. He
then divides the argument into two large divisions and proceeds.
I. OUGHT YOU TO CONCEDE?
A. What are "the true nature and the peculiar circumstances of
the object which we have before us?"
I. America has a rapidly growing population.
II. It has a rapidly increasing commercial value, shown by
1. Its demand for our goods.
2. The value of its agricultural products.
3. The value of the products of its fisheries.
III. There is in the people a "fierce spirit of liberty."
This is the result of
1. Their descent from Englishmen.
2. Their popular form of government.
3. Religion in the North.
4. The haughty spirit of the South.
5. Their education.
6. Their remoteness from the governing body.
B. "You have before you the object." "What ... shall we do with
it?" "There are but three ways of proceeding relative to this
stubborn spirit in the colonies."
I. To change it by removing the causes. This is
impracticable.
II. To prosecute it as criminal. This is inexpedient.
III. _To comply with it as necessary._ This is the answer to
the first question.
II. OF WHAT NATURE OUGHT THE CONCESSION TO BE?
A. A concession that grants to any colony the satisfaction of the
grievances it complains of brings about conciliation and
peace. This general proposition is established by the
following examples. It has done so in
1. Ireland,
2. Wales,
3. Durham, and
4. Chester.
B. The grievances complained of in America are unjust taxation
and no representation.
C. Therefore these resolutions rehearsing facts and calculated to
satisfy their grievances will bring about conciliation and
peace.
I. They are unrepresented.
II. They are taxed.
III. No method has been devised for procuring a representation
in Parliament for the said Colonies.
IV. Each colony has within itself a body with powers to
raise, levy, and assess taxes.
V. These assemblies have at sundry times granted large
subsidies and aids to his Majesty's service.
VI. Experience teaches that it is expedient to follow their
method rather than force payment.
D. As a result of the adoption of these resolutions, "everything
which has been made to enforce a contrary system must, I take
it for granted, fall along with it. On that ground, I have
drawn the following resolutions."
I. It is proper to repeal certain legislation regarding
taxes, imports, and administration of justice.
II. To secure a fair and unbiased judiciary.
III. To provide better for the Courts of Admiralty.
E. He next considers objections.
Conclusion.
Notice first the introduction. It goes straight to the question. To
tell a large opposition that it has vacillated on a great question is
not calculated to win a kind hearing; yet this point, necessary to
Burke's argument, is so delicately handled that no one could be
seriously offended, nor could any one charge him with weakness. The
introduction serves its purpose; it gains the attention of the
audience and it exactly states the proposition.
He then divides the whole argument into two parts. The framework is
visible, and with intent. These great divisions he takes up
separately. First, that there may be a perfect understanding of the
question, he explains "the true nature and the peculiar circumstances
of the object which we have before us." This illustrates the use of
exposition in argument. The descent and education did not prove that
the Americans had a fiery spirit; that was acknowledged and needed no
proof. It simply sets forth the facts,--facts which he afterward uses
as powerful instruments of conviction. As long as a man can use
exposition, he can carry his readers with him; it is when he begins to
argue, to force matters, that he raises opposition. So this use of
exposition was fortunate. America was an English colony. Her strength
and riches were England's strength and wealth. It would be pleasing to
all Englishmen to hear the recital of America's prosperity. Up to the
time he asks, "What, in the name of God, shall we do with it," the
oration is not essentially argument; it does nothing more than place
"before you the object."
In the section marked "I. B," Burke begins the real argument by the
method of elimination. He asserts that there are only three ways of
dealing with this fierce spirit of liberty. Then he conclusively
proves the first impracticable and the second inexpedient. There is
left but the one course, concession. This method of proof is
absolutely conclusive if every possible contingency is stated and
provided for. Notice that in this section "B" everything that was
mentioned in the first section "A" is used, and the whole is one solid
mass moving forward irresistibly to the conclusion of the first and
the most important part of this argument.
The second main division is devoted to the conclusion of the first. If
you must concede,--the conclusion of the first half,--what will be the
nature of your concession? A concession, to be a concession, must
grant what the colonists wish, not what the ministry thinks would be
good for them. Then by the history of England's dealings with Ireland,
Wales, Chester, and Durham, he proves that such a concession has been
followed by peace. This makes the major premise of his syllogism,
stated in "II. A." The minor premise is a statement of the grievances
of the colonies. The conclusion is in the resolutions for the redress
of the grievances of the colonies. The second part is then one great
syllogism, the premises of which are established by ample proof, the
conclusion of which cannot well be disputed.
"And here I should close," says the orator; the direct argument is
finished. There are some objections which demand dignified
consideration. At this point, however, it is easy to refute any
objections, for behind each word there is now the crushing weight of
the whole argument.
The conclusion recites the advantages of Burke's plan over all others,
and reasserts its value, now proven at every point. It is a powerful
summary, and a skillful plea for the adoption of a policy of
conciliation with the colonies of America.
Every kind of argument is used in this oration. One would look long
for a treasury better supplied with illustrations. The great
conclusions are reached by the certain methods of elimination and
deduction. In establishing the minor points Burke has used arguments
from sign, cause, example, and induction. He calls in testimony; he
quotes authority; he illustrates. Not any device of sound argument
that a man honest in his search for truth may use has been omitted. It
is worthy of patient study.
In conclusion, the student of argument should learn well the value of
different kinds of argument; he should exercise the most careful
scrutiny in selecting his material, without any hesitation rejecting
irrelevant matter; he should state the proposition so that it cannot
be misunderstood; he must consider his readers, guiding his course
wisely with regard for all the conditions under which he produces his
argument; he should remember that the law in argument is climax, and
that coherence should be sought with infinite pains. Above all, the
man who takes up a debate must be fair and honest; only so will he win
favor from his readers, and gain what is worth more than victory,--the
distinction of being a servant of truth.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
QUESTIONS.
MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON MILTON.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 103.)
Put into a syllogism, Macaulay's opponents said, "An educated man
living in an enlightened age has better facilities for writing poetry
than an uneducated man at the dawn of civilization. Milton was an
educated man, living in an enlightened age; therefore Macaulay had
better facilities," etc.
Which premise does Macaulay attack? Does he demolish it?
What value is there in an analogy between experimental sciences and
imitative arts? Between poetry and a magic-lantern? Is either an
argument that is convincing? Are both effective in the essay?
What do you think of Macaulay's estimate of Wordsworth? Granting that
this estimate is true, what kind of a proof is it of the proposition
that "his very talents will be a hindrance to him"?
Is it a uniform phenomenon that as civilization advances, poetry
declines? Name some instances that prove it.
Name some instances that disprove it. What method of proof have you
used in both?
Is an uncivilized state of society the cause of good poetry, or only
an attendant circumstance?
What method of proof is adopted on pages 34 and 35?
Granting that you cannot conceive "a good man and an unnatural
father," does that prove anything about the first sentence at the
bottom of page 55?
Does the example of the prisoner on page 60 prove anything?
BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 100.)
What argument does Burke use to prove that hedging in the population
is not practicable?
When he says that they will occupy territory because they have done
so, is that an inductive or deductive argument, or is it an argument
from sign?
If it is deductive, what is the suppressed premise?
Are the arguments from 48 to 64 more in the nature of direct or
indirect proofs?
What value is there in an indirect argument?
"Americans speak the English language, therefore they are English." Is
the argument good? Where is the fault? Look for the suppressed
premise.
Is paragraph 55 direct or indirect argument?
Does he prove that criminal procedure against the colonies would fail,
by sign or by deduction?
Do the four precedents which he cites of Ireland, Wales, Durham, and
Chester prove that his plan will work in America?
Upon what general principle do all arguments from example depend?
Is paragraph 79 in itself exposition or argument?
What method is adopted in paragraph 88 to prove that the principle of
concession is applicable to America?
How does he prove that Americans were grieved by taxes?
How does he establish the competence of the colony assemblies?
How could the arguments have made "the conclusion irresistible"?
(Paragraph 112.)
What principle of argument is stated in paragraph 114?
In paragraph 127 is the one example cited enough to prove the rule?
Find an example of argument from sign. Is it a relation of cause and
effect? Is it conclusive?
In paragraph 129 what does Burke mention as arguments of value?
What kind of arguments in paragraphs 128 to 136? What is the
conclusion?
Whenever Burke states a general truth it forms a part of what? Supply
the other premise in five cases, and derive a conclusion.
Does he ever use an argument from cause to establish a probability? To
establish a fact?
Does he use deduction more frequently than sign?
Does he seek for a climax in the arrangement of the parts of his
brief?
* * * * *
CHAPTER VII
PARAGRAPHS
Definition.
So far we have been dealing with whole compositions; we now take up
the study of paragraphs, sentences, and words. A paragraph in many
respects resembles a whole composition. It may be narrative,
descriptive, expositive, or argumentative. It must have a beginning, a
middle, and an end. It is constructed with regard to Unity, Mass, and
Coherence. And as a whole composition treats a single theme, so a
paragraph treats one division of a theme. It has been defined as a
composition in miniature. A paragraph is a sentence or a group of
sentences serving a single purpose in the development of a theme. The
purpose may be simply to announce the theme-subject, to make a
conclusion, to indicate a transition; but in the great majority of
cases its purpose is to treat a single topic. So true is this that
many authors, with good reason, define a paragraph as a group of
sentences treating a single topic.
Long and Short Paragraphs.
Nobody would have trouble in telling where on a page a paragraph began
and where it ended. The indention at the beginning, and usually the
incomplete line at the end, mark its visible limits. Unfortunately
there is no specified length after which the writer is to make a break
in the lines and begin a new paragraph. The length of a paragraph
depends on something deeper than appearances; as the topic requires a
lengthy or but a short treatment, as the paragraph may be a long
summary or a short transition, the length of a paragraph varies. Yet
there is one circumstance which should counsel an author to keep his
paragraphs within certain bounds: he should always have regard for his
readers. Readers shirk heavy labor. If a book or an article looks
hard, it is passed by; if it looks easy, it is read. If the paragraphs
be long and the page solid, the composition looks difficult; if the
paragraphs be short and the page broken, the piece looks easy. This
fact should advise a writer to make the page attractive by using short
paragraphs; provided, and the provision is important, he can so make
real paragraphs, divisions of composition that fully treat one topic.
These divisions may in reality be but one sentence, and they may just
as unquestionably be two pages of hard reading.
Successive paragraphs, each more than a page of ordinary print in
length, repel as too hard; and a series of paragraphs of less than a
quarter of a page impresses a reader as scrappy, and the work seems to
lack the authority of complete treatment. An author will serve his
readers and himself best by so subdividing his subject that the
paragraphs are within these limits.
The following paragraph is much too long and can with no difficulty be
subdivided. The paragraphs in the next group are too short, and they
are incomplete.
"Keating rode up now, and the transaction became more
complicated. It ended in the purchase of the horse by Bryce
for a hundred and twenty, to be paid on the delivery of
Wildfire, safe and sound, at the Batherley stables. It did
occur to Dunsey that it might be wise for him to give up the
day's hunting, proceed at once to Batherley, and, having
waited for Bryce's return, hire a horse to carry him home
with the money in his pocket. But the inclination for a run,
encouraged by confidence in his luck, and by a draught of
brandy from his pocket-pistol at the conclusion of the
bargain, was not easy to overcome, especially with a horse
under him that would take the fences to the admiration of
the field. Dunstan, however, took one fence too many, and
got his horse pierced with a hedge-stake. His own
ill-favored person, which was quite unmarketable, escaped
without injury; but poor Wildfire, unconscious of his price,
turned on his flank, and painfully panted his last. It
happened that Dunstan, a short time before, having had to
get down to arrange his stirrup, had muttered a good many
curses at this interruption, which had thrown him in the
rear of the hunt near the moment of glory, and under this
exasperation had taken the fences more blindly. He would
soon have been up with the hounds again, when the fatal
accident happened; and hence he was between eager riders in
advance, not troubling themselves about what happened behind
them, and far-off stragglers, who were as likely as not to
pass quite aloof from the line of road in which Wildfire had
fallen. Dunstan, whose nature it was to care more for
immediate annoyances than for remote consequences, no sooner
recovered his legs, and saw that it was all over with
Wildfire, than he felt a satisfaction at the absence of
witnesses to a position which no swaggering could make
enviable. Reinforcing himself, after his shake, with a
little brandy and much swearing, he walked as fast as he
could to a coppice on his right hand, through which it
occurred to him that he could make his way to Batherley
without danger of encountering any member of the hunt. His
first intention was to hire a horse there and ride home
forthwith, for to walk many miles without a gun in his hand,
and along an ordinary road, was as much out of the question
to him as to other spirited young men of his kind. He did
not much mind about taking the bad news to Godfrey, for he
had to offer him at the same time the resource of Marner's
money; and if Godfrey kicked, as he always did, at the
notion of making a fresh debt, from which he himself got the
smallest share of advantage, why, he wouldn't kick long:
Dunstan felt sure he could worry Godfrey into anything. The
idea of Marner's money kept growing in vividness, now the
want of it had become immediate; the prospect of having to
make his appearance with the muddy boots of a pedestrian at
Batherley, and to encounter the grinning queries of
stablemen, stood unpleasantly in the way of his impatience
to be back at Raveloe and carry out his felicitous plan; and
a casual visitation of his waistcoat-pocket, as he was
ruminating, awakened his memory to the fact that the two or
three small coins his fore-finger encountered there were of
too pale a color to cover that small debt, without payment
of which the stable-keeper had declared he would never do
any more business with Dunsey Cass. After all, according to
the direction in which the run had brought him, he was not
so very much farther from home than he was from Batherley;
but Dunsey, not being remarkable for clearness of head, was
only led to this conclusion by the gradual perception that
there were other reasons for choosing the unprecedented
course of walking home. It was now nearly four o'clock, and
a mist was gathering: the sooner he got into the road the
better. He remembered having crossed the road and seen the
finger-post only a little while before Wildfire broke down;
so, buttoning his coat, twisting the lash of his
hunting-whip compactly round the handle, and rapping the
tops of his boots with a self-possessed air, as if to assure
himself that he was not at all taken by surprise, he set off
with the sense that he was undertaking a remarkable feat of
bodily exertion, which somehow, and at some time, he should
be able to dress up and magnify to the admiration of a
select circle at the Rainbow. When a young gentleman like
Dunsey is reduced to so exceptional a mode of locomotion as
walking, a whip in his hand is a desirable corrective to a
too bewildering dreamy sense of unwontedness in his
position; and Dunstan, as he went along through the
gathering mist, was always rapping his whip somewhere. It
was Godfrey's whip, which he had chosen to take without
leave because it had a gold handle; of course no one could
see, when Dunstan held it, that the name _Godfrey Cass_ was
cut in deep letters on that gold handle--they could only see
that it was a very handsome whip. Dunsey was not without
fear that he might meet some acquaintance in whose eyes he
would cut a pitiable figure, for mist is no screen when
people get close to each other; but when he at last found
himself in the well-known Raveloe lanes without having met a
soul, he silently remarked that that was part of his usual
good luck. But now the mist, helped by the evening darkness,
was more of a screen than he desired, for it hid the ruts
into which his feet were liable to slip--hid everything, so
that he had to guide his steps by dragging his whip along
the low bushes in advance of the hedgerow. He must soon, he
thought, be getting near the opening at the Stone-pits: he
should find it out by the break in the hedgerow. He found it
out, however, by another circumstance which he had not
expected--namely, by certain gleams of light, which he
presently guessed to proceed from Silas Marner's cottage.
That cottage and the money hidden within it had been in his
mind continually during his walk, and he had been imagining
ways of cajoling and tempting the weaver to part with the
immediate possession of his money for the sake of receiving
interest. Dunstan felt as if there must be a little
frightening added to the cajolery, for his own arithmetical
convictions were not clear enough to afford him any forcible
demonstration as to the advantages of interest; and as for
security, he regarded it vaguely as a means of cheating a
man by making him believe that he would be paid. Altogether,
the operation on the miser's mind was a task that Godfrey
would be sure to hand over to his more daring and cunning
brother: Dunstan had made up his mind to that; and by the
time he saw the light gleaming through the chinks of
Marner's shutters, the idea of a dialogue with the weaver
had become so familiar to him, that it occurred to him as
quite a natural thing to make the acquaintance forthwith.
There might be several conveniences attending this course:
the weaver had possibly got a lantern, and Dunstan was tired
of feeling his way. He was still nearly three quarters of a
mile from home, and the lane was becoming unpleasantly
slippery, for the mist was passing into rain. He turned up
the bank, not without some fear lest he might miss the right
way, since he was not certain whether the light were in
front or on the side of the cottage. But he felt the ground
before him cautiously with his whip-handle, and at last
arrived safely at the door. He knocked loudly, rather
enjoying the idea that the old fellow would be frightened at
the sudden noise. He heard no movement in reply: all was
silence in the cottage. Was the weaver gone to bed, then? If
so, why had he left a light? That was a strange
forgetfulness in a miser. Dunstan knocked still more loudly,
and, without pausing for a reply, pushed his fingers through
the latch-hole, intending to shake the door and pull the
latch-string up and down, not doubting that the door was
fastened. But, to his surprise, at this double motion the
door opened, and he found himself in front of a bright fire,
which lit up every corner of the cottage--the bed, the loom,
the three chairs, and the table--and showed him that Marner
was not there."[23]
"The country, all white, lit up by the fire, shone like a
cloth of silver tinted with red.
"A bell, far off, began to toll.
"The old 'Sauvage' remained standing before her ruined
dwelling, armed with her gun, her son's gun, for fear lest
one of those men might escape.
"When she saw that it was ended, she threw her weapon into
the brasier. A loud report rang back.
"People were coming, the peasants, the Prussians.
"They found the woman seated on the trunk of a tree, calm
and satisfied.
"A German officer, who spoke French like a son of France,
demanded of her:--
"'Where are your soldiers?'
"She extended her thin arm towards the red heap of fire
which was gradually going out, and she answered with a
strong voice:--
"'There!'
"They crowded round her. The Prussian asked:--
"'How did it take fire?'
"She said:--
"'It was I who set it on fire.'"[24]
Topic Sentence.
Paragraphs are developments of a definite topic; and this topic is
generally announced at the beginning of the paragraph. In isolated
paragraphs, paragraphs that are indeed compositions in miniature, the
topic-sentence is the first sentence. The reader is then advised of
the subject of the discussion; and as sentence after sentence passes
him, he can relate it to the topic, and the thought is a cumulative
whole. If the subject be not announced, the individual sentences must
be held in mind until the reader catches the drift of the discussion,
or the author at last presents the topic.
Below are four paragraphs, from different forms of discourse, all
having the topic-sentence at the beginning.
"_But success or defeat was a minor matter to them, who had
only thought for the safety of those they loved._ Amelia, at
the news of the victory, became still more agitated even
than before. She was for going that moment to the army. She
besought her brother with tears to conduct her thither. Her
doubts and terrors reached their paroxysm; and the poor
girl, who for many hours had been plunged into stupor, raved
and ran hither and thither in hysteric insanity,--a piteous
sight. No man writhing in pain in the hard-fought field
fifteen miles off, where lay, after their struggles, so many
of the brave--no man suffered more keenly than this poor
harmless victim of the war. Jos could not bear the sight of
her pain. He left his sister in the charge of her stouter
female companion and descended once more to the threshold of
the hotel, where everybody still lingered, and talked, and
waited for more news."[25]
"_Yet the fact remains that the honey-bee is essentially a
wild creature, and never has been and cannot be thoroughly
domesticated._ Its proper home is the woods, and thither
every new swarm counts on going; and thither many do go in
spite of the care and watchfulness of the bee-keeper. If the
woods in any given locality are deficient in trees with
suitable cavities, the bees resort to all kinds of
makeshifts; they go into chimneys, into barns and outhouses,
under stones, into rocks, and so forth. Several chimneys in
my locality with disused flues are taken possession of by
colonies of bees nearly every season. One day, while
bee-hunting, I developed a line that went toward a farmhouse
where I had reason to believe no bees were kept. I followed
it up and questioned the farmer about his bees. He said he
kept no bees, but that a swarm had taken possession of his
chimney, and another had gone under the clapboards in the
gable end of his house. He had taken a large lot of honey
out of both places the year before. Another farmer told me
that one day his family had seen a number of bees examining
a knot-hole in the side of his house; the next day as they
were sitting down to dinner their attention was attracted by
a loud humming noise, when they discovered a swarm of bees
settling upon the side of the house and pouring into the
knot-hole. In subsequent years other swarms came to the same
place."[26]
"_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 have 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 Khayyam'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;_ a poetry
of indifference toward moral ideas is a poetry of
indifference toward _life._"[27]
"_The advantages arising from a system of copyright are
obvious._ It is desirable that we should have a supply of
good books: we cannot have such a supply unless men of
letters are liberally remunerated; and the least
objectionable way of remunerating them is by means of
copyright. You cannot depend for literary instruction and
amusement on the leisure of men occupied in the pursuits of
active life. Such men may occasionally produce compositions
of great merit. But you must not look to such men for works
which require deep meditation and long research. Works of
that kind you can expect only from persons who make
literature the business of their lives. Of these persons few
will be found among the rich and the noble. The rich and the
noble are not impelled to intellectual exertion by
necessity. They may be impelled to intellectual exertion by
the desire of distinguishing themselves, or by the desire of
benefiting the community. But it is generally within these
walls that they seek to signalize themselves and to serve
their fellow-creatures. Both their ambition and their public
spirit, in a country like this, naturally take a political
turn. It is then on men whose profession is literature, and
whose private means are not ample, that you must rely for a
supply of valuable books. Such men must be remunerated for
their literary labor. And there are only two ways in which
they can be remunerated. One of those ways is patronage; the
other is copyright."[28]
Frequently the topic-sentence is delayed until after the connection
between what was said in the preceding paragraph and what will be said
has been made. To establish this relation requires sometimes but a
word or a short phrase, and sometimes sentences. In these cases the
topic-sentence follows the transition, and it may come as late as the
middle of the paragraph.
"The crows we have always with us, but it is not every day
or every season that one sees an eagle. _Hence I must
preserve the memory of one I saw the last day I went
bee-hunting._ As I was laboring up the side of a mountain at
the head of a valley, the noble bird sprang from the top of
a dry tree above me and came sailing directly over my head.
I saw him bend his eye down upon me, and I could hear the
low hum of his plumage, as if the web of every quill in his
great wings vibrated in his strong, level flight. I watched
him as long as my eye could hold him. When he was fairly
clear of the mountain he began that sweeping spiral movement
in which he climbs the sky. Up and up he went without once
breaking his majestic poise till he appeared to sight some
far-off alien geography, when he bent his course
thitherward, and gradually vanished in the blue depths. The
eagle is a bird of large ideas, he embraces long distances;
the continent is his home. I never look upon one without
emotion; I follow him with my eye as long as I can. I think
of Canada, of the Great Lakes, of the Rocky Mountains, of
the wild and sounding sea-coast. The waters are his, and the
woods and the inaccessible cliffs. He pierces behind the
veil of the storm, and his joy is height and depth and vast
spaces."[29]
"Now these insinuations and questions shall be answered in
their proper places; here I will but say that I scorn and
detest lying, and quibbling, and double-tongued practice,
and slyness, and cunning, and smoothness, and cant, and
pretence, quite as much as any Protestants hate them; and I
pray to be kept from the snare of them. But all this is just
now by the bye; _my present subject is my Accuser;_ what I
insist upon here is this unmanly attempt of his, in his
concluding pages, to cut the ground from under my feet;--to
poison by anticipation the public mind against me, John
Henry Newman, and to infuse into the imaginations of my
readers suspicion and mistrust of everything that I may say
in reply to him. This I call poisoning the wells."
("Apologia.")
In exposition and argument, and sometimes in the other forms of
discourse, the topic-sentence may be at the end of the paragraph. This
is for emphasis in narration and description. In exposition and
argument it is better to lead up to an unwelcome truth than to
announce it at once.
"Thus the matter of life, so far as we know it (and we have
no right to speculate on any other), breaks up, in
consequence of that continual death which is the condition
of its manifesting vitality, into carbonic acid, water, and
nitrogenous compounds which certainly possess no properties
but those of ordinary matter. And out of these same forms of
ordinary matter, and from none which are simpler, the
vegetable world builds up all the protoplasm which keeps the
animal world a-going. _Plants are the accumulators of the
power which animals distribute and disperse._"[30]
No Topic-Sentence.
Sometimes no topic-sentence appears in the paragraph. In such a case
it is easily discovered; or at times it is too fragile to be
compressed into any definite shape--a feeling, or a sentiment too
delicate, too volatile for expression. A paragraph with no
topic-sentence is most common in narration and description.
"The tide of color has ebbed from the upper sky. In the west
the sea of sunken fire draws back; and the stars leap forth,
and tremble, and retire before the advancing moon, who slips
the silver train of cloud from her shoulders, and, with her
foot upon the pine-tops, surveys heaven." ("Richard
Feverel," by George Meredith.)
The Plan.
Whether the topic form a part of the paragraph or not, it should be
distinctly before the writer, and he should write upon the topic.
Nothing contributes so much to the success of paragraphs as a definite
treatment of one single topic. The paragraph is the development, the
growth of this topic, as the plant is the development of its seed.
Moreover, the development is according to a definite plan. The
different steps are not usually laid out, as was done in the outline
of a theme. Genung, in the "Practical Elements of Rhetoric," presents
what he calls a typical form for a paragraph. It shows that a
paragraph which is fully developed is in reality a miniature theme. It
is as follows:--
The Subject proposed.
I. Whatever is needed to explain the subject.
Repetition.
Obverse.
Definition.
II. Whatever is needed to establish the subject.
Exemplification or detail.
Illustration.
Proof.
III. Whatever is needed to apply the subject.
Result or consequence.
Enforcement.
Summary or recapitulation.
Kinds of Paragraphs.
This typical form of a paragraph embodies all that paragraphs may do,
and it is the logical arrangement. However, it is rare, perhaps it
never occurs, that a paragraph is found having all these elements
developed. The purpose determines which part of a paragraph should
receive the amplification. If it be narrative or descriptive, there is
no definition or proof; but the development by details will
predominate. In an argument, definition and proof will form the large
part of the paragraphs. Again, the position in the theme determines
what kind of a paragraph should be used. In exposition the first
paragraphs would be devoted to stating the proposition, and would
therefore be largely given up to definition and repetition; the body
would be especially paragraphs of detail and illustration; while the
closing paragraph would be taken up with results and a summary. As one
of the elements of a paragraph has been especially developed,
paragraphs have been named paragraphs of repetition,[31] of the
obverse, of details, of instances or examples, and of comparisons.
Such a division is somewhat mechanical; but for purposes of study and
for conscious practice in construction it has value.
Details.
The paragraph of details is by far the most common. It is found in all
kinds of discourse. It originates from the fact that persons generally
give the general truth first and follow this statement with the
details or particulars. Whether the storyteller begins by saying, "Now
I'll tell you just how they happened to be there;" or the traveler
writes, "From the Place de la Concorde one has about him magnificent
views," or "There were many unfortunate circumstances about the
Dreyfus affair;" in each case he will follow the general statement of
the opening sentence with sentences going into particulars or details.
_"All was now bustle and hubbub in the late quiet
schoolroom._ The scholars were hurried through their lessons
without stopping at trifles; those who were nimble skipped
over half with impunity, and those who were tardy had a
smart application now and then in the rear, to quicken their
speed or help them over a tall word. Books were flung aside
without being put away on the shelves, inkstands were
overturned, benches thrown down, and the whole school was
turned loose an hour before the usual time, bursting forth
like a legion of young imps, yelping and racketing about the
green in joy at their early emancipation."[32]
"It was toward evening that Ichabod arrived at the castle of
the Heer Van Tassel, _which he found thronged with the pride
and flower of the adjacent country._ Old farmers, a spare
leathern-faced race, in homespun coats and breeches, blue
stocking, huge shoes, and magnificent pewter buckles. Their
brisk, withered little dames, in close crimped caps,
long-waisted short-gowns, homespun petticoats, with scissors
and pincushions, and gay calico pockets hanging on the
outside. Buxom lasses, almost as antiquated as their
mothers, excepting where a straw hat, a fine ribbon, or
perhaps a white frock gave symptoms of city innovation. The
sons, in short square-skirted coats, with rows of stupendous
brass buttons, and their hair generally queued in the
fashion of the times, especially if they could procure an
eelskin for the purpose, it being esteemed throughout the
country as a potent nourisher and strengthener of the
hair."[32]
"The enemies of the Parliament, indeed, rarely choose to
take issue in the great points of the question. They content
themselves with exposing some of _the crimes and follies_ to
which public commotions necessarily give birth. They bewail
the unmerited fate of Strafford. They execrate the lawless
violence of the army. They laugh at the scriptural names of
the preachers. Major-generals fleecing their districts;
soldiers reveling on the spoils of a ruined peasantry;
upstarts, enriched by the public plunder, taking possession
of the hospitable firesides and hereditary trees of the old
gentry; boys smashing the beautiful windows of cathedrals;
Quakers riding naked through the market-place;
Fifth-monarchy men shouting for King Jesus; agitators
lecturing from the tops of tubs on the fate of Agag,--all
these, they tell us, were the offspring of the great
Rebellion."[33]
In narration and in a short paragraph of description this paragraph of
details is frequently without a topic-sentence. The circumstances that
make up a transaction are grouped, but there is no need of writing, "I
will now detail this." In the following, since the paragraph is
plainly about the preparation for the fight, it is unnecessary to say
so. Such a patent statement would hinder the movement of the story.
"Alan drew a dirk, which he held in his left hand in case
they should run in under his sword. I, on my part, clambered
up into the berth with an armful of pistols and something of
a heavy heart, and set open the window where I was to watch.
It was a small part of the deck that I could overlook, but
enough for our purpose. The sea had gone down, and the wind
was steady and kept the sails quiet; so that there was a
great stillness on the ship, in which I made sure I heard
the sound of muttering voices. A little after, and there
came a clash of steel upon the deck, by which I knew they
were dealing out the cutlasses, and one had been let fall;
and after that silence again."[34]
Comparisons.
The paragraph of comparisons tells what a thing is like and what a
thing is not like. It is much used in description and exposition. It
is often the clearest way to describe an object or to explain a
proposition. One thing may be likened to a number of things, drawing
from each a quality that more definitely pictures it; or it may be
compared with but one, and the likeness may be followed out to the
limit of its value. In the same manner it is often of value to tell
what a thing or a proposition does not resemble, to contrast it with
one or more ideas, and by this means exclude what might otherwise be
confusing. Note that after the negative comparison the paragraph
closes with what it is like, or what it is.
From Macaulay's long comparison of the writings of Milton and Dante,
one paragraph is enough to illustrate the use of contrast.
"Now let us _compare_ with the exact details of Dante the
dim intimations of Milton. We will cite a few examples. The
English poet has never thought of taking the measure of
Satan. He gives us merely a vague idea of vast bulk. In one
passage the fiend lies stretched out, huge in length,
floating many a rood, equal in size to the earth-born
enemies of Jove, or to the sea monster which the mariner
mistakes for an island. When he addresses himself to battle
against the guardian angels, he stands like Teneriffe or
Atlas; his stature reaches the sky. Contrast with these
descriptions the lines in which Dante has described the
gigantic spectre of Nimrod: 'His face seemed to me as long
and as broad as the ball of St. Peter's at Rome, and his
other limbs were in proportion; so that the bank, which
concealed him from the waist downwards, nevertheless showed
so much of him that three tall Germans would in vain have
attempted to reach to his hair.'" ("Essay on Milton.")
The following indicates the use of similarity.
"It is the character of such revolutions that we always see
the worst of them at first. Till men have been some time
free, they know not how to use their freedom. The natives of
wine countries are generally sober. In climates where wine
is a rarity intemperance abounds. A newly liberated people
may be _compared to_ a northern army encamped on the Rhine
or the Xeres. It is said that, when soldiers in such a
situation first find themselves able to indulge without
restraint in such a rare and expensive luxury, nothing is to
be seen but intoxication. Soon, however, plenty teaches
discretion, and, after wine has been for a few months their
daily fare, they become more temperate than they had ever
been in their own country. In the same manner, the final and
permanent fruits of liberty are wisdom, moderation, and
mercy. Its immediate effects are often atrocious crimes,
conflicting errors, skepticism on points the most clear,
dogmatism on points the most mysterious. It is just at this
crisis that its enemies love to exhibit it. They pull down
the scaffolding from the half-finished edifice; they point
to the flying dust, the falling bricks, the comfortless
rooms, the frightful irregularity of the whole appearance,
and then ask in scorn where the promised splendor and
comfort is to be found. If such miserable sophisms were to
prevail, there would never be a good house or a good
government in the world." ("Essay on Milton," by Lord
Macaulay.)
Repetition.
A third method of developing a paragraph from a topic-sentence is by
repetition. Simply to repeat in other words would be useless
redundancy; but so to repeat that with each repetition the thought
broadens or deepens is valuable in proposing a subject or explaining
it. No person has attained greater skill in repetition than Matthew
Arnold, and much of his clearness comes from his repetition, often of
the very same phrases.
"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 recognized at home; he is not
recognized 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
recognizes 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
excellencies which Wordsworth 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 one of the others has left."
("Essay on Wordsworth," by Matthew Arnold.)
"Perhaps no person can be a poet, or can even enjoy poetry,
without a certain unsoundness of mind, if anything which
gives so much pleasure ought to be called unsoundness. By
poetry we mean not all writing in verse, nor even all good
writing in verse. Our definition excludes many metrical
compositions which, on other grounds, deserve the highest
praise. By poetry, we mean the art of employing words in
such a manner as to produce an illusion on the imagination,
the art of doing by means of words what the painter does by
means of colors. Thus the greatest of the poets has
described it, in lines universally admired for the vigor and
felicity of their diction, and still more valuable on
account of the just notion which they convey of the art in
which he excelled:--
'As imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.'
These are the fruits of the 'fine frenzy' which he ascribes
to the poet,--a fine frenzy, doubtless, but still a frenzy.
Truth, indeed, is essential to poetry, but it is the truth
of madness. The reasonings are just, but the premises are
false. After the first suppositions have been made,
everything ought to be consistent; but those first
suppositions require a degree of credulity which almost
amounts to a partial and temporary derangement of the
intellect. Hence, of all people, children are the most
imaginative. They abandon themselves without reserve to
every illusion. Every image which is strongly presented to
their mental eye produces in them the effect of reality. No
man, whatever his sensibility may be, is ever affected by
Hamlet or Lear as a little girl is affected by the story of
poor Red Riding Hood. She knows it is all false, that wolves
cannot speak, that there are no wolves in England. Yet in
spite of her knowledge she believes; she weeps; she
trembles; she dares not go into a dark room lest she should
feel the teeth of the monster at her throat. Such is the
despotism of the imagination over uncultivated minds."
("Essay on Milton," by Macaulay.)
Obverse.
A fourth method of building up a paragraph from a topic-sentence
consists in telling what it is not; that is, giving the obverse. This
is very effective in argument, and is employed in exposition and
description. The obverse usually follows a positive statement, and
again is followed by the affirmative; that is, first what it is, then
what it is not, and last, what it is again. In the following
description by Ruskin, the method appears and reappears. Notice the
"nots" and "buts," indicating the change from the negative to the
positive statement. It would be a sacrilege to omit the last
paragraph, though it does not illustrate this manner of development.
"For all other rivers there is a surface, and an underneath,
and a vaguely displeasing idea of the bottom. But the Rhone
flows like one lambent jewel; its surface is nowhere, its
ethereal self is everywhere, the iridescent rush and
translucent strength of it blue to the shore, and radiant to
the depth.
"Fifteen feet thick, not of flowing, but flying water; not
water, neither--melted glacier, rather, one should call it;
the force of the ice is with it, and the wreathing of the
clouds, the gladness of the sky, and the continuance of
Time.
"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 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.
"The innocent way, too, in which the river used to stop to
look into every little corner. Great torrents always seem
angry, and great rivers are often too sullen; but there is
no anger, no disdain in the Rhone. It seemed as if the
mountain stream was in mere bliss at recovering itself again
out of the lake-sleep, and raced because it rejoiced in
racing, fain yet to return and stay. There were pieces of
wave that danced all day, as if Perdita were looking on to
learn; there were little streams that skipped like lambs and
leaped like chamois; there were pools that shook the
sunshine all through them, and were rippled in layers of
overlaid ripples, like crystal sand; there were currents
that twisted the light into golden braids, and inlaid the
threads with turquoise enamel; there were strips of stream
that had certainly above the lake been mill-stream, and were
looking busily for mills to turn again; and there were
shoots of stream that had once shot fearfully into the air,
and now sprang up again, laughing, that they had only fallen
a foot or two;--and in the midst of all the gay glittering
and eddied lingering, the noble bearing by of the midmost
depth, so mighty, yet so terrorless and harmless, with its
swallows skimming in spite of petrels, and the dear old
decrepit town as safe in the embracing sweep of it as if it
were set in a brooch of sapphires."[35]
This extract from Burke's speech is a good example of the same method.
"I put this consideration of the present and the growing
numbers in the front of our deliberation, because, Sir, this
consideration will make it evident to a blunter discernment
than yours, that _no_ partial, narrow, contracted, pinched,
occasional system will be at all suitable to such an object.
It will show you that it is _not_ to be considered as one of
those _minima_ which are out of the eye and consideration of
the law; _not_ a paltry excrescence of the state; _not_ a
mean dependent, who may be neglected with little damage and
provoked with little danger. It will prove that some degree
of care and caution is required in the handling such an
object; it will show that you ought not, in reason, to
trifle with so large a mass of the interests and feelings of
the human race. You could at no time do so without guilt;
and be assured you will not be able to do it long with
impunity."[36]
Examples.
A fifth method of expanding a topic is by means of illustrations and
examples. It is used largely in establishing or enforcing a
proposition. The author selects one example, or perhaps more than one,
to illustrate his proposition. Note the words that may introduce
specific instances: _for example, for instance, to illustrate, a case
in point,_ and so forth.
In the first of the following quotations, Cardinal Newman is showing
that simply to acquire is not true mental enlargement. The paragraph
is made up of a series of instances. The second paragraph is by
Macaulay.
"The _case is the same still more strikingly when_ the
persons in question are beyond dispute men of inferior
powers and deficient education. Perhaps they have been much
in foreign countries, and they receive, in a passive,
otiose, unfruitful way, the various facts which are forced
upon them there. Seafaring men, _for example,_ range from
one end of the earth to the other; but the multiplicity of
external objects which they have encountered forms no
symmetrical and consistent picture upon their imagination;
they see the tapestry of human life, as it were, on the
wrong side, and it tells no story. They sleep, and they rise
up, and they find themselves, now in Europe, now in Asia;
they see visions of great cities and wild regions; they are
in the marts of commerce, or amid the islands of the South;
they gaze on Pompey's Pillar, or on the Andes; and nothing
which meets them carries them forward or backward, to any
idea beyond itself. Nothing has a drift or relation; nothing
has a history or a promise. Everything stands by itself and
comes and goes in its turn, like the shifting scenes of a
show, which leave the spectator where he was. Perhaps you
are near such a man on a particular occasion, and expect him
to be shocked or perplexed at something which occurs; but
one thing is much the same to him as another; or, if he is
perplexed, it is as not knowing what to say, whether it is
right to admire, or to ridicule, or to disapprove, while
conscious that some expression of opinion is expected from
him; for in fact he has no standard of judgment at all, and
no landmarks to guide him to a conclusion. Such is mere
acquisition, and, I repeat, no one would dream of calling it
philosophy." ("Idea of a University," by Cardinal Newman.)
"I will give _another instance._ One of the most
instructive, interesting, and delightful books in our
language is Boswell's 'Life of Johnson.' Now it is well
known that Boswell's eldest son considered this book,
considered the whole relation of Boswell to Johnson, as a
blot in the escutcheon of the family. He thought, not
perhaps altogether without reason, that his father had
exhibited himself in a ludicrous and degrading light. And
thus he became so sore and irritable that at last he could
not bear to hear the 'Life of Johnson' mentioned. Suppose
that the law had been what my honorable and learned friend
wishes to make it. Suppose that the copyright of Boswell's
'Life of Johnson' had belonged, as it well might, during
sixty years, to Boswell's eldest son. What would have been
the consequence? An unadulterated copy of the finest
biographical work in the world would have been as scarce as
the first edition of Camden's 'Britannia.'" (Speech,
"Copyright," by Macaulay.)
Combines Two or More Forms.
As was said at the beginning, a paragraph is seldom made exclusively
of one form. One part of the typical paragraph is usually developed
more than any other and gives to the paragraph its character and its
name. By far the most common variety of paragraph is that which
combines two or more of the other forms. It is not necessary to cite
examples; they are everywhere. Though combination is the commonest
method of development, it should be guarded. It is a poor paragraph
that combines the forms indiscriminately. It should follow some plan;
and the best plan is the one already given in the typical paragraph.
All paragraphs, whatever be the special method of development, are
governed by the three principles which have guided in the structure of
whole compositions. Whether the purpose be to prove or to narrate, to
enforce a conclusion or to illustrate, if a paragraph is to produce
its greatest effect, it should have unity, it should be well massed,
and it should be coherent.
It is not necessary now to define unity in a paragraph; the need is
rather to notice the offenses against it that frequently occur. They
are manifestly two: too much may be included, and not all may be
included. The accompanying circumstance of the one, not necessarily
the cause, however, is often a very long paragraph, and of the other a
short paragraph.
Unity.
Violations of the unity of a paragraph most frequently result from
including more than belongs there. The theme has been selected; it is
narrow and concise. When one begins to write, many things crowd in
pell-mell. Impressions, which come and go, we hardly know how or why,
are the only products of most minds. Impressions, not shaped and
logical thoughts, make up the mixed confusion frequently called a
theme. The writer puts down enough of these impressions to make a
paragraph, and then goes on to do it again, fancying that so he is
really paragraphing. Even should he keep within the limits of his
theme, he cannot in this way paragraph. As everything upon a subject
does not belong in a theme, so everything in a theme may not be
introduced indiscriminately into any paragraph.
The other danger lies in the short paragraph. It does not allow a
writer room to say all he has to say upon the topic, so it runs over
into the next paragraph. All of the thought-paragraph should appear in
one division on the page. This error is not so common as the former.
Examples of each are to be found on pages 152-157.
Need of Outline.
The remedy for this confusion clearly is hard thinking; and a great
assistance is the outline. Before a word is written, think through the
theme; get clearly the purpose of each paragraph in the development of
the whole. Then write just what the paragraph was intended to include,
and no more. More will be suggested because the parts of a whole theme
are all closely related, but that more belongs somewhere else. Make a
sharp outline, and follow it.
Mass.
A paragraph should be so arranged that the parts which arrest the eye
will be important.[37] When a person glances down a page, his eye
rests upon the beginning and the end of each paragraph. A reader going
rapidly through an article to get what he wants of it does not read
religiously every word; he knows that he will be directed to the
contents of each paragraph by the first and last sentences. If a
writer considers his readers, if he desires to arrange his paragraph
so that it will be most effective, he will have at these points such
sentences as will accurately indicate its contents and the trend of
the discussion; and he will form these sentences so well that they
will deserve the attention which is given them by reason of their
position in the paragraph.
What begins and what ends a Paragraph?
What are the words that deserve the distinction of opening and closing
a paragraph? As in the theme, so in a paragraph, the first thing is to
announce the subject of discussion. When the subject is simply
announced without giving any indication as to the drift of the
discussion, the conclusion of the discussion is generally stated in
the last sentence. Burke says, "The first thing we have to consider
with regard to the nature of the object is the number of people in the
colonies." He concludes the paragraph with, "Whilst we are discussing
any given magnitude, they are grown to it. Whilst we spend our time in
deliberating on the mode of governing two millions, we shall find we
have millions more to manage. Your children do not grow faster from
infancy to manhood than they spread from families to communities, and
from villages to nations." In other cases the opening sentence states
the conclusion at which the paragraph will arrive. Then the closing
sentence may be a repetition of the opening or topic sentence; or it
may be one of the points used to exemplify or establish the
proposition which opens the paragraph. Again, in a short paragraph the
topic need not be announced at the beginning; in this case it should
be given in the concluding sentence. Or, should the topic be given in
the opening sentence of a short paragraph, it is unnecessary to repeat
it at the end. In any case, whether the paragraph opens with a simple
announcement of the topic to be discussed, or with the conclusion
which the paragraph aims to explain, establish, or illustrate, or
whether it closes with the conclusion of the whole matter, or with one
of the main points in the development, the sentences at the beginning
and the end of a paragraph should be strong sentences worthy of their
distinguished position.
In the first paragraph below, there is a proposition in the first
sentence and its repetition in the last. In the two following, though
they close with no general statement, the specific assertions used to
substantiate and illustrate the first sentences are strong and carry
in themselves the truth of the topic-sentence.
"The eloquence of Mr. Adams resembled his general character,
and formed, indeed, a part of it. It was bold, manly, and
energetic; and such the crisis required. When public bodies
are to be addressed on momentous occasions, when great
interests are at stake, and strong passions excited, nothing
is valuable in speech farther than as it is connected with
high intellectual and moral endowments. Clearness, force,
and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction.
True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It
cannot be brought from far. Labor and learning may toil for
it, but they will toil in vain. Words and phrases may be
marshaled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It must
exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.
Affected passion, intense expression, the pomp of
declamation, all may aspire to it; they cannot reach it. It
comes, if it come at all, like the outbreaking of a fountain
from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires,
with spontaneous, original, native force. The graces taught
in the schools, the costly ornaments and studied
contrivances of speech, shock and disgust men when their own
lives and the fate of their wives, their children, and their
country hang on the decision of the hour. Then words have
lost their power, rhetoric is vain, and all elaborate
oratory contemptible. Even genius itself then feels rebuked
and subdued, as in the presence of higher qualities. Then
patriotism is eloquent; then self-devotion is eloquent. The
clear conception, outrunning the deductions of logic, the
high purpose, the firm resolve, the dauntless spirit,
speaking on the tongue, beaming from the eye, informing
every feature, and urging the whole man onward, right onward
to his object--this, this is eloquence: or rather it is
something greater and higher than all eloquence; it is
action, noble, sublime, godlike action."[38]
"The prejudiced man travels, and then everything he sees in
Catholic countries only serves to make him more thankful
that his notions are so true; and the more he sees of
Popery, the more abominable he feels it to be. If there is
any sin, any evil in a foreign population, though it be
found among Protestants also, still Popery is clearly the
cause of it. If great cities are the schools of vice, it is
owing to Popery. If Sunday is profaned, if there is a
carnival, it is the fault of the Catholic Church. Then,
there are no private houses, as in England; families live in
staircases; see what it is to belong to a Popish country.
Why do the Roman laborers wheel their barrows so slow in the
Forum? why do the Lazzaroni of Naples lie so listlessly on
the beach? why, but because they are under the _malaria_ of
a false religion. Rage, as is well known, is in the Roman
like a falling sickness, almost as if his will had no part
in it and he had no responsibility; see what it is to be a
Papist. Bloodletting is as frequent and as much a matter of
course in the South as hair-cutting in England; it is a
trick borrowed from the convents, when they wish to tame
down refractory spirits."[39]
"Excuse me, Sir, if turning from such thoughts I resume this
comparative view once more. You have seen it on a large
scale; look at it on a small one. I will point out to your
attention a particular instance of it in the single province
of Pennsylvania. In the year 1704 that province called for
£11,459 in value of your commodities, native and foreign.
This was the whole. What did it demand in 1772? Why, nearly
fifty times as much; for in that year the export to
Pennsylvania was £507,909, nearly equal to the export to all
the colonies together in the first period."[40]
The following illustrates the weakness of closing with a specific
instance when it does not rise to the level of the remainder of a
paragraph. The last sentence would better be omitted.
"We often hear of the magical influence of poetry. The
expression in general means nothing; but, applied to the
writings of Milton, it is most appropriate. His poetry acts
like an incantation. Its merit lies less in its obvious
meaning than in its occult power. There would seem, at first
sight, to be no more in his words than in other words. But
they are words of enchantment. No sooner are they pronounced
than the past is present and the distant near. New forms of
beauty start at once into existence, and all the
burial-places of memory give up their dead. Change the
structure of the sentence, substitute one synonym for
another, and the whole effect is destroyed. The spell loses
its power; and he who should then hope to conjure with it
would find himself as much mistaken as Cassim in the Arabian
tale, when he stood crying, 'Open Wheat,' 'Open Barley,' to
the door which obeyed no sound but 'Open Sesame.' In the
miserable failure of Dryden in his attempt to translate into
his own diction some parts of the 'Paradise Lost' is a
remarkable instance of this." ("Essay on Milton," by
Macaulay.)
Length of opening and closing Sentences.
By examination, one finds that the first sentence of a paragraph of
exposition and of argument is usually a terse statement of the
proposition; and that after the proposition has been established there
follows a longer sentence gathering up all the points of the
discussion into a full, rounded period which forms a suitable climax
and conclusion of the paragraph. Of Macaulay's "Milton" one is quite
inside the truth when he says that of those paragraphs containing an
opening topic-sentence and its restatement as a conclusion, the
closing sentence is the longer in the ratio of two to one. In Burke's
"Conciliation," the ratio rises as high as four to one. There are,
however, exceptions to the rule. Paragraphs sometimes close with a
shorter statement of the proposition, a sort of aphorism or epigram.
As this kind of sentence is fascinating, some books have said that
paragraphs should close so; that it is like cracking a whip, and gives
a snap to the paragraph not gained in any other way. Even if readers
enjoyed having paragraphs close in this cracking manner, it must be
borne in mind that not all conclusions are capable of such a
statement, and, what is worse, that the tendency to seek for epigrams
leads to untruth and a degenerated form of witticism. Such forced
sentences are only half truths, or they are a bit of cheap repartee.
Such a close is effective, if the whole truth can be so expressed; but
to seek for such sentences is dangerous. The best rule is the one
already stated; it applies to the long sentence and the short sentence
alike. It is that a paragraph should close with words that deserve
distinction.
Proportion.
The body of a paragraph should have the matter so proportioned that
the more important points shall receive the longer treatment. In a
paragraph of proof, details, or comparison, that point in the proof,
that particular, that part of the comparison, which for the specific
purpose has most significance, should have proportionately fuller
treatment. It is the same principle already noticed in exposition.
Indicate the relative importance of topics in a paragraph by the
relative number of words used in their treatment.
For mass in a paragraph, then, keep in mind that the last sentence
should contain matter and form worthy of the position it occupies;
that the position of next importance is at the beginning; and that the
relative importance of the matters in the body of a paragraph is
pretty correctly indicated by the relative length of treatment.
Coherence and Clearness.
Coherence, the third principle of structure, is the most important;
and it is the most difficult to apply. For one can make a beginning
and an end, he can select his materials so that there is unity, but to
make all the parts stick together, to arrange the sentences so that
one grows naturally from the preceding and leads into the next,
requires nice adjustment of parts, and rewriting many times. How
essential coherence in a paragraph is, simply to make the thought easy
to grasp, may be seen by taking a paragraph to pieces and mixing up
its sentences, and at the same time removing all words that bind its
parts together. The following can hardly be understood at all, but in
its original condition it is so clear that it cannot be misunderstood.
If the sentences be arranged in the following order, the original
paragraph will appear: 1, 5, 3, 9, 8, 6, 2, 4, 7, 10.
1. "The first question which obviously suggests itself is
how these wonderful moral effects are to be wrought under
the instrumentality of the physical sciences. 2. To know is
one thing, to do is another; the two things are altogether
distinct. 3. Does Sir Robert Peel mean to say, that whatever
be the occult reasons for the result, so it is; you have but
to drench the popular mind with physics, and moral and
religious advancement follows on the whole, in spite of
individual failures? 4. A man knows he should get up in the
morning,--he lies abed; he knows he should not lose his
temper, yet he cannot keep it. 5. Can the process be
analyzed and drawn out, or does it act like a dose or a
charm which comes into general use empirically? 6. It is
natural and becoming to seek for some clear idea of the
meaning of so dark an oracle. 7. A laboring man knows he
should not go to the ale-house, and his wife knows she
should not filch when she goes out charing, but,
nevertheless, in these cases, the consciousness of a duty is
not all one with the performance of it. 8. Or rather, does
he mean, that, from the nature of the case, he who is imbued
with science and literature, unless adverse influences
interfere, cannot but be a better man? 9. Yet when has the
experiment been tried on so large a scale as to justify such
anticipations? 10. There are, then, large families of
instances, to say the least, in which men may become wiser,
without becoming better; what, then, is the meaning of this
great maxim in the mouth of its promulgators?"
Coherence, so necessary to the easy understanding of a paragraph, is
gained in three ways: by the order in which the sentences are
arranged; by the use of parallel constructions for parallel ideas; and
by the use of connectives.
Two Arrangements of Sentences in a Paragraph.
Material which has been selected with regard to the principle of unity
is all informed with one idea. Yet though one thought runs through it
all and unites it, the parts do not stand in an equally close relation
to the conclusion, nor is each part equally related to every other
part. Had they been, the last paragraph quoted would have been as well
in one order as another. Rather the sentences seem to fall into groups
of more closely related matters; or at times one sentence seems to
follow as the direct consequence of the preceding sentence. With
respect to the way in which the sentences contribute to the topic of
the paragraph, whether the topic be announced first or last, sentences
may be said to contribute directly to the proposition or indirectly.
If directly, the paragraph is a collection of sentences, each having a
common purpose, each having a similar relation to the topic, arranged,
as it were, side by side, and advancing as one body to the conclusion.
This may be termed an individual arrangement of sentences, since as
individuals they each contribute to the topic. The conclusion derives
its force from the combined mass of all. If indirectly, the paragraph
is a series of sentences, each growing out of the one preceding it,
each receiving a push from the sentence before, and the last having
the combined force of all. This may be styled a serial arrangement of
sentences, since in such a case each contributes to the topic only as
one in a chain. The former overcomes by its mass; the latter strikes
by reason of its velocity. The one advances in rank; the other
advances in single file.
An illustration of each will help to an understanding of this. In the
following paragraph from Macaulay's essay on Milton, each of the
details mentioned points directly to "those days" when the race became
a "byword and a shaking of the head to the nations." Their aggregate
mass enforces the topic of the paragraph. They are all one body
equally informed with the common principle which is the topic. Notice
that one sentence is not the source of the next, but that all the
sentences stand in a similar relation to the conclusion. This
arrangement is common in description. In the second paragraph, from
Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow," each detail contributes to the
appearance of Ichabod, not through some other sentence, but directly.
"Then came those days, never to be recalled without a blush,
the days of servitude without loyalty and sensuality without
love; of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices; the paradise
of cold hearts and narrow minds; the golden age of the
coward, the bigot, and the slave. The king cringed to his
rival that he might trample on his people; sank into a
viceroy of France, and pocketed with complacent infamy her
degrading insults and her more degrading gold. The caresses
of harlots and the jests of buffoons regulated the policy of
the state. The government had just ability enough to
deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. The
principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning
courtier, and the Anathema Maranatha of every fawning dean.
In every high place, worship was paid to Charles and James,
Belial and Moloch; and England propitiated those obscene and
cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children.
Crime succeeded to crime, and disgrace to disgrace, till the
race, accursed of God and man, was a second time driven
forth to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a byword
and a shaking of the head to the nations."
"Ichabod was a suitable figure for such a steed. He rode
with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to
the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like
grasshoppers'; he carried his whip perpendicularly in his
hand, like a sceptre, and as his horse jogged on, the motion
of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings.
A small wool hat rested on the top of his nose, for so his
scanty strip of forehead might be called, and the skirts of
his black coat fluttered out almost to the horse's tail.
Such was the appearance of Ichabod and his steed as they
shambled out of the gate of Hans Van Ripper, and it was
altogether such an apparition as is seldom to be met with in
broad daylight."
The following paragraph in the essay on Milton contains an example of
the second method of arrangement. Each sentence is the result of the
one before it. The sentences advance in single file. Notice that each
sentence does not contribute directly to the conclusion, but that it
acts through the succeeding sentence. The phrases from which a
succeeding sentence springs are in small capitals; and the phrases
which refer back are in italics.
"Most of the remarks which we have hitherto made on the
public character of Milton apply to him only as one of A
LARGE BODY. WE SHALL PROCEED to notice some of the
peculiarities which distinguished him _from his
contemporaries._ _And for that purpose_ it is necessary to
take a short survey of THE PARTIES into which the political
world was at that time divided. We must premise that our
observations are intended to apply only to THOSE WHO
ADHERED, from a sincere preference, to one or to the other
side. In days of public commotion, _every faction,_ like an
Oriental army, is attended by a crowd of camp-followers, a
useless and heartless RABBLE, who prowl round its line of
march in the hope of picking up something under its
protection, but desert it in the day of battle, and often
join to exterminate it after defeat. England, at the time of
which we are treating, abounded with fickle and _selfish
politicians,_ who transferred their support to every
government as it rose; who kissed the hand of the king in
1640, and spat in his face in 1649; who shouted with equal
glee when Cromwell was inaugurated in Westminster Hall, and
when he was dug up to be hanged at Tyburn; who dined on
calves' heads or broiled rumps, and cut down oak branches or
stuck them up, as circumstances altered, without the
slightest shame or repugnance. _These_ we leave out of
account. We take our estimate of parties from _those who_
really deserve to be called partisans."
(For other examples of the same arrangement see the next quotation,
and also a paragraph quoted on page 222.)
Paragraphs are most frequently found to combine the two methods. In
the following, notice that the second sentence grows out of the first,
the third from the second, and so the serial arrangement is maintained
until the eighth is reached. Sentences nine, ten, eleven, and twelve
give body to sentence eight. Then begins again the regular succession.
Sentences sixteen to twenty are the outgrowth of the phrase "on his
account."
"1. The Puritans were men whose minds had derived a peculiar
character from the daily contemplation of superior beings
and eternal interests. 2. Not content with acknowledging in
general terms an overruling Providence, they habitually
ascribed every event to the will of the Great Being, for
whose power nothing was too vast, for whose inspection
nothing was too minute. 3. To know Him, to serve Him, to
enjoy Him, was with them the great end of existence. 4. They
rejected with contempt the ceremonious homage which other
sects substituted for the pure worship of the soul. 5.
Instead of catching occasional glimpses of the Deity through
an obscuring veil, they aspired to gaze full on the
intolerable brightness, and to commune with Him face to
face. 6. Hence originated their contempt for terrestrial
distinctions. 7. The difference between the greatest and the
meanest of mankind seemed to vanish when compared with the
boundless interval which separated the whole race from Him
on whom their own eyes were constantly fixed. 8. They
recognized no title to superiority but His favor; and,
confident of that favor, they despised all the
accomplishments and all the dignities of the world. 9. If
they were unacquainted with the works of philosophers and
poets, they were deeply read in the oracles of God. 10. If
their names were not found in the registers of heralds, they
were recorded in the Book of Life. 11. If their steps were
not accompanied by a splendid train of menials, legions of
ministering angels had charge over them. 12. Their palaces
were houses not made with hands; their diadems, crowns of
glory which should never fade away. 13. On the rich and the
eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with
contempt; for they esteemed themselves rich in a more
precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language,
nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by
the imposition of a mightier hand. 14. The very meanest of
them was a being to whose fate a mysterious and terrible
importance belonged, on whose slightest action the spirits
of light and darkness looked with anxious interest; who had
been destined, before heaven and earth were created, to
enjoy a felicity which should continue when heaven and earth
should have passed away. 15. Events which short-sighted
politicians ascribed to earthly causes had been ordained on
his account. 16. For his sake empires had risen, and
flourished, and decayed. 17. For his sake the Almighty had
proclaimed His will by the pen of the Evangelist and the
harp of the prophet. 18. He had been wrested by no common
deliverer from the grasp of no common foe. 19. He had been
ransomed by the sweat of no vulgar agony, by the blood of no
earthly sacrifice. 20. It was for him that the sun had been
darkened, that the rocks had been rent, that the dead had
risen, that all nature had shuddered at the sufferings of
her expiring God."
This division has been made because by its aid an approach can be made
toward rules for arrangement. In the paragraph quoted on page 183, the
different sentences are equally related to the topic. Is there, then,
no reason why one should be first rather than another? Notice the
topics of the sentences and the order becomes a necessity. King, state
policy, government, liberty, religion,--it is an ascending scale. On
page 96 is a paragraph on the charmed names used by Milton. "One,"
"another," "a third," "a fourth,"--for all one can see as to the
relation of each to the topic, "a fourth" might as well have been
"one" as fourth. But upon reading the paragraph it is evident that
Macaulay thought the last more important than the first. So in the
paragraph just quoted about the Puritans, when the arrangement of the
first eight sentences changes in sentences nine through eleven, and
again in sentences sixteen to twenty, the order is a climax. Moreover,
those topics are associated which are more closely related in thought.
King is more closely related to government than to religion, and
religion is more intimately associated with the idea of liberty than
with king. The order, then, is the natural order of association. From
these examples we derive the first principle of arrangement. In a
paragraph where several sentences contribute individually to the
topic, they must be arranged in the order in which the thoughts are
associated and follow each other; and, when possible, they should take
the order of a climax.
Definite References.
In the paragraph made up of sentences in a series, each linked to the
sentence before and after, the difficulty is in transmitting the force
of one sentence to the next one undiminished. This is done by binding
the sentences so closely together that one cannot slip on the other.
In the paragraph about the Puritans, of the second sentence the "Great
Being" goes back to "superior beings" of the first; and "Him" in the
next springs from "Great Being." "To know Him, to serve Him, to enjoy
Him,"--what is it but the "pure worship" of the fourth? while
"ceremonious homage" of the fourth is the "occasional glimpses of the
Deity through an obscuring veil" of the fifth. One sentence grows out
of some phrase of the preceding sentence; the sentences are firmly
locked together by the repetition, a little modified, of the thought
of a preceding phrase. There is no slipping. To get this result there
must be no question of the thought-sequence in the sentences. Each
sentence must be a consequence of a preceding sentence. And there must
be attention to the choice and position of the words from which the
following sentence is to spring. Such words cannot be indefinite,
mushy words; they must be definite, firm words. Moreover, they must
not be buried out of sight by a mass of unimportant matters; they must
be so placed that they are unhindered, free to push forward the
thought toward its ultimate conclusion. This often requires inversion
in the sentence. That phrase which is the source of the next sentence
must be thrown up into a prominent position; and it is usually pressed
toward the end of the sentence, nearer to the sentence which is its
consequence. In a paragraph quoted on page 222, where this same
subject is taken up in connection with sentences, there is an
excellent illustration of this. "Slow and obscure," "inadequate
ideas," "small circle," and the numerous phrases which repeat the
thought, though not the words, are firm words binding the sentences
together indissolubly.
Use of Pronouns.
Not all sentences permit such clear reference as this. Still it must
be said that where the thought is logical and clear, the reference is
never missed: the binding words are important words and they occupy
prominent positions. There is, however, a whole group of words whose
function is to make the references sure. They are pronouns. Pronouns
refer back, and they point forward. Their careful use is the commonest
method of making sure of references, and so of binding sentences
together. The ones in common use are _this, that, the former, the
latter;_ the relatives _who, which,_ and _that;_ and the personal
pronouns _he, she, it._ To these may be added some adverbs: _here,
there, hence, whence, now, then, when,_ and _while._ The binding force
of these words is manifest in every paragraph of composition.
The following paragraph, from Burke's speech on "Conciliation with the
Colonies," illustrates the use of pronouns as words referring back,
and binding the whole into one inseparable unit.
"As to the wealth which the colonies have drawn from the sea
by their fisheries, you had all that matter fully opened at
your bar. You surely thought _those_ acquisitions of value,
for _they_ seemed even to excite your envy; and yet the
spirit by which _that_ enterprising employment has been
exercised ought rather, in my opinion, to have raised your
esteem and admiration. And pray, Sir, what in the world is
equal to _it?_ Pass by the other parts, and look at the
manner in which the people of New England have of late
carried on the whale fishery. Whilst we follow _them_ among
the tumbling mountains of ice, and behold _them_ penetrating
into the deepest frozen recesses of Hudson's Bay and Davis's
Straits, whilst we are looking for _them_ beneath the arctic
circle, we hear that _they_ have pierced into the opposite
region of polar cold, that _they_ are at the antipodes, and
engaged under the frozen Serpent of the south. Falkland
Island, which seemed too remote and romantic an object for
the grasp of national ambition, is but a stage and
resting-place in the progress of _their_ victorious
industry. Nor is the equinoctial heat more discouraging to
_them_ than the accumulated winter of both the poles. We
know that whilst _some_ of _them_ draw the line and strike
the harpoon on the coast of Africa, _others_ run the
longitude and pursue _their_ gigantic game along the coast
of Brazil. No sea but what is vexed by _their_ fisheries; no
climate that is not witness to _their_ toils. Neither the
perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of France, nor the
dexterous and firm sagacity of English enterprise ever
carried _this_ most perilous mode of hardy industry to the
extent to which _it_ has been pushed by _this_ recent
people; a people who are still, as it were, but in the
gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of manhood. When
I contemplate _these_ things; when I know that the colonies
in general owe little or nothing to any care of ours, and
that they are not squeezed into this happy form by the
constraints of watchful and suspicious government, but that,
through a wise and salutary neglect, a generous nature has
been suffered to take her own way to perfection; when I
reflect upon _these_ effects, when I see how profitable
_they_ have been to us, I feel all the pride of power sink,
and all presumption in the wisdom of human contrivances melt
and die away within me. My rigor relents. I pardon something
to the spirit of liberty."
Of Conjunctions.
Another group of words which give coherence to a paragraph is
conjunctions. They indicate the relations between sentences, and they
point the direction of the new sentence. The common relations between
sentences indicated by conjunctions are coördinative, subordinative,
adversative, concessive, and illative. Each young writer has usually
but one word, at the most two words, in his vocabulary to express each
of these relations. He knows _and, but, if, although,_ and
_therefore._ Each person should learn from a grammar the whole list,
for no class of words indicates clear thinking so unmistakably as
conjunctions.
Two words of advice should be given regarding the use of conjunctions.
If the thought all bends one way, if this direction is perfectly
clear, there is no need of conjunctions. It is when the course of the
discussion is tortuous, when the road is not direct, when the reader
may lose the way without these guides, that conjunctions should be
used. On the other hand, conjunctions are an annoyance when not
needed. Just as guideposts along a road where there is no chance to
leave the direct path are useless, and their recurrence is a cause of
aggravation, so it is with unnecessary conjunctions. They attract
attention to themselves, and so draw it from the thought. The first
caution is, Do not use conjunctions unless needed.
In the following, the repetition of _and_ is unnecessary and annoying.
"Six shillings a week does not keep body and soul together
very unitedly. They want to get away from each other when
there is only such a very slight bond as that between them;
and one day, I suppose, the pain and the dull monotony of it
all had stood before her eyes plainer than usual, and the
mocking spectre had frightened her. She had made one last
appeal to friends, but, against the chill wall of their
respectability, the voice of the erring outcast fell
unheeded; _and_ then she had gone to see her child--had held
it in her arms and kissed it, in a weary, dull sort of way,
_and_ without betraying any particular emotion of any kind,
_and_ had left it, after putting into its hand a penny box
of chocolate she had bought it, _and_ afterwards, with her
last few shillings, had taken a ticket _and_ come down to
Goring.
"It seemed that the bitterest thoughts of her life must have
centred about the wooded reaches and the bright green
meadows around Goring; but women strangely hug the knife
that stabs them, and, perhaps, amidst the gall, there may
have mingled also sunny memories of sweetest hours, spent
upon those shadowed deeps over which the great trees bend
their branches down so low.
"She had wandered about the woods by the river's brink all
day, _and_ then, when evening fell _and_ the gray twilight
spread its dusky robe upon the waters, she stretched out her
arms to the silent river that had known her sorrow and her
joy. _And_ the old river had taken her into its gentle arms,
_and_ had laid her weary head upon its bosom, _and_ had
hushed away the pain."
The other word is: When possible put the conjunction that connects two
sentences into the body of the sentence, rather than at its beginning.
In this way its binding power is increased. This principle should
limit the use of _and_ and _but_ at the beginning of a sentence.
Rarely is _and_ needed in such a place. If the thought goes straight
forward--and it must do so if _and_ correctly expresses the
relation--there is usually no gain in its use. At times when the
reader might be led to expect some change of direction from some
phrase in the preceding sentence, then it would be wise to set him
right by the use of _and._ Moreover, there are times when coördinate
thoughts are so important, and the expression of the coördination is
so important, that a sentence beginning with _and_ is the only
adequate means of expressing it. However, be very sure that there is
need for every _and_ that you use. The same caution may be given about
_but._ _But_ indicates an abrupt turn in the thought. Is such a
contrast in the thought? If so, is there no other word to express the
thought? Some persons go so far as to say that these words should
never begin a sentence. This is too pedantic and not true. When
coördinative and adversative relations are to be expressed, however,
it is certainly more elegant if some variety can be obtained, and the
union is closer if the conjunction be placed in the body of the
sentence. This requires the use of other words besides _and_ and
_but._ _Also, in like manner, besides, too, nevertheless, however,
after all, for all that,_ should be as familiar as the two overworked
words _and_ and _but._ Look for ways to bind sentences in the middle
rather than at the end. It is more elegant and it is much safer.
Parallel Constructions.
A third principle of arrangement is the use of parallel constructions
for parallel thoughts. By parallel structure is meant that the
principal elements of the sentences shall be arranged in the same
order. If subordinate clauses precede principal clauses in one
sentence, they shall in the other; if they follow in one, they shall
follow in the other. If an active voice be used in one, it shall be
used in the other; if the predicate go before the subject in one, it
shall in the other. The use of parallel structure frequently demands
repetition of forms and even of identical words and phrases. It is
very effective in giving clearness to a paragraph and in securing
coherence of its parts.
In the first of the two illustrations below, read one sentence this
way and observe the ruin that is wrought. "The North American colonies
made such a struggle against the mother country." In the second
paragraph, change two of the sentences to the passive voice. The
effect is evident loss in clearness and strength.
"All history is full of revolutions, produced by causes
similar to those which are now operating in England. A
portion of the community which had been of no account,
expands and becomes strong. It demands a place in the
system, suited, not to its former weakness, but to its
present power. If this is granted, all is well. If this is
refused, then comes the struggle between the young energy of
one class and the ancient privileges of another. Such was
the struggle between the Plebeians and Patricians of Rome.
Such was the struggle of the Italian allies for admission to
the full rights of Roman citizens. Such was the struggle of
our North American colonies against the mother country. Such
was the struggle which the Third Estate of France maintained
against the aristocracy of birth. Such was the struggle
which the Roman Catholics of Ireland maintained against the
aristocracy of creed. Such is the struggle which the free
people of color in Jamaica are now maintaining against the
aristocracy of skin. Such, finally, is the struggle which
the middle classes in England are maintaining against an
aristocracy of mere locality, against an aristocracy, the
principle of which is to invest a hundred drunken
pot-wallopers in one place, or the owner of a ruined hovel
in another, with powers which are withheld from cities
renowned to the furthest ends of the earth for the marvels
of their wealth and of their industry."[41]
"Man is a being of genius, passion, intellect, conscience,
power. He exercises these various gifts in various ways, in
great deeds, in great thoughts, in heroic acts, in hateful
crimes. He founds states, he fights battles, he builds
cities, he ploughs the forest, he subdues the elements, he
rules his kind. He creates vast ideas, and influences many
generations. He takes a thousand shapes, and undergoes a
thousand fortunes. Literature records them all to the
life.... He pours out his fervid soul in poetry; he sways to
and fro, he soars, he dives, in his restless speculations;
his lips drop eloquence; he touches the canvas, and it glows
with beauty; he sweeps the strings, and they thrill with an
ecstatic meaning. He looks back into himself, and he reads
his own thoughts, and notes them down; he looks out into the
universe, and tells over and celebrates the elements and
principles of which it is the product."[42]
(The principles of Mass and Coherence in paragraphs are closely allied
with these same principles regarding sentences. Some further
discussion of these important matters, as well as more illustrations,
will be found in the next chapter.)
Good sense must be exercised in the use of parallel constructions.
Although a short series of sentences containing parallel thoughts is
common and demands this treatment, it is not at all frequent that one
has such a long series as these paragraphs contain. In these
paragraphs the parallel is in the thought; it has not been searched
out. Because one is pleased with these effects of parallel
construction, he should not be led to seek for opportunities where he
can force sentences into similar shapes. The thoughts must be
parallel. If the thought is actually parallel, a parallel treatment
may be adopted with great advantage to clearness and force; if it is
not parallel, any attempt to treat it as such is detected as a shallow
trick. To search for thoughts to trail along in a series results in
thinnest bombast. As everywhere else in composition, so here a writer
must rely on his good taste and good sense.
Summary.
Whatever may be the special mode of development, of whatever form of
discourse it is to be a part, the three fundamental principles which
guide in making a paragraph are Unity, Mass, and Coherence. The unity
of the paragraph is secured by referring all of the material to the
topic, including what contributes to the main thought and excluding
what has no value. Paragraphs excessively long or very short may lead
to offenses against unity. Mass in a paragraph is gained by placing
worthy words in the positions of distinction; by treating the more
important matters at greater length; and, when possible without
disturbing coherence, by arranging the material in a climax. Coherence
is secured by keeping together matters related in thought; by a wise
choice and placing of all words which bind sentences together; and by
the use of parallel constructions for parallel ideas. Carefully chosen
material, arranged so that worthy words occupy the positions of
distinction, and all so skillfully knit together that every sentence,
every phrase, every word, takes the reader one step toward the
conclusion,--this constitutes a good paragraph.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
THE OLD MANSE.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 69.)
In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page 19, what do you think
of the selection of material? Does the last detail give the finishing
touch to the paragraph? Is it a real climax?
On page 25 a paragraph begins, "Lightly as," etc. In the second
sentence "bound volume" goes back to what words in the first sentence?
"he," of the third, to what of the second? "thus it was" to what
before?
Now take the paragraph on pages 34 and 35 and trace the connection of
the sentences, drawing two lines under the phrase from which a
succeeding sentence springs, and one line under words that refer back
to a preceding phrase; also trace out the dovetailing in the sentences
on pages 6 and 7. In the paragraph on pages 18 and 19 the development
is not so. Each sentence emphasizes "the sombre aspect of external
nature." What is the law of their arrangement? (See text-book, pages
181-187.)
Find other paragraphs arranged in this way. (See pages 35, 36.)
What is the topic of the second paragraph?
Can you divide the paragraph filling the middle of page 8? Where?
What is the relation between the first sentence and the last in the
paragraph at the bottom of page 11? Give the words that join the
sentences of the paragraph together.
In the paragraph beginning on page 13, what is the purpose of the
first two sentences?
On page 14, does it seem to you that Hawthorne had forgotten the Old
Manse enough so that it could be called a digression? or do you think
that the delightful, rambling character of the essay permits it? Can
you divide this paragraph on pages 14 and 15? Where?
What figure at the bottom of page 15? Is it the custom to use a
capital letter in such a case? Has the paragraph in which the figure
occurs unity? Where could you divide it? Give the topic of both new
paragraphs.
Of the paragraph on pages 16 and 17, what is the relation of the last
three sentences to the topic?
What comment would you make upon the last sentence of the paragraph
ending at the top of page 25?
At the opening of the paragraph beginning on page 29, do you like the
figure? Trace the relation between the first and second sentences;
between the second and the third. Could this paragraph be divided?
RIP VAN WINKLE AND THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 51.)
In the paragraph on page 11, what is the relation between the first
and last sentences? Why is the middle of the paragraph introduced? Is
it effective?
What method of development is adopted in the next paragraph?
Trace out the connection of the paragraphs in the first five pages of
this essay. What words at the beginning of each paragraph are
especially helpful in joining the parts?
On page 13 Irving writes, "Times grew worse and worse for Rip Van
Winkle," etc. How many paragraphs are given to this topic? Could all
of them be put into one? Should they? What is the last part of the
first sentence of this paragraph?
Why are there so few topic sentences in this essay? How did Irving
know where to paragraph? Give topics of the paragraphs on pages 16,
17, 18. In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of p. 17, why are the
clothes of the man mentioned first?
What method of paragraph development is adopted in the paragraph
beginning in the middle of page 23? Is the last detail important?
From the use on pages 24 and 25, what do you gather as to the rule for
paragraphing where dialogue is reported?
In the paragraph on page 40, what reason has Irving for saying
"therefore"? From what sentence does the last of this paragraph arise?
Do you think the specific closing of the paragraph worthy of the
position?
When Irving says on page 41 that he was "an odd mixture of small
shrewdness and simple credulity," did he mean that he was shrewd, or
that he was not shrewd? Can you find anything in the paragraphs to
develop the thought that he was shrewd? How many paragraphs are given
to his simple credulity? Why so many?
In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page 42, what advantage is
there in the exclamatory sentences?
Would it be as well to divide the next paragraph into three sentences?
Give your reasons. As the paragraph stands, is the sentence loose or
periodic?
In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page 45, what is the
method of development? Why is the chanticleer mentioned last?
Are Irving's sentences long? Do they seem long? Why, or why not?
What is the relation of the first sentence of the first paragraph on
page 55 to the last?
What is the topic of the next paragraph? Do you think it would be just
as well to put the second sentence of this paragraph last?
In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page 55, what method of
development has been used? Why is the "blue jay" mentioned last?
THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 119.)
Do you think the first paragraph too long? Where can you divide it?
What is the test of the length of a paragraph?
At the bottom of page 67, do you think the first sentence of the
paragraph the topic? or is it the last sentence? Give reasons.
Is the detail at the end of the paragraph beginning on the middle of
page 71 upon the topic of the paragraph? Is it good there? How do you
know that Usher did not say "him"?
Of the paragraph on page 73, what sentence is the topic?
What proportion of the paragraphs have topic sentences? Have the
others topics? Give them for the paragraphs on the first five pages.
What method of paragraph development has Poe adopted in the paragraph
beginning in the middle of page 81? What is the relation between the
opening and the close of the paragraph? Why is the middle needed?
Do you like the second sentence of the next paragraph? What is there
disagreeable in it?
As you read along do the paragraphs run into one another? Is such a
condition good?
SILAS MARNER.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 83.)
Divide paragraphs on pages 10 and 11. What is the topic of each of the
new paragraphs?
In the first paragraph of chapter two each sentence grows out of the
one preceding. Put two lines under the words in each sentence which
are the source of the next sentence. Draw one line under the words in
each sentence which refer back to the preceding sentence.
In the paragraph beginning at the bottom of page 94, what is the topic
sentence? What relation has the last sentence to the first? What
method of development in the paragraph?
Can the paragraphs of exposition usually be divided? Do they violate
unity? If not, upon what principle can you divide them?
What is the tendency in regard to the length of paragraphs in recent
literature?
* * * * *
CHAPTER VIII
SENTENCES
Definition and Classification. Simple Sentences.
A sentence is a group of words expressing a complete thought.
Sentences have been classified as simple, complex, and compound. In
reality there are but two classes of sentences,--simple and compound.
It is not material to the construction of a sentence whether a
modifier be a word, a phrase, or a clause; it still remains an
adjective, adverb, or noun modifier, and the method in which the
subject and predicate are developed is the same. By means of
modifiers, a subject and predicate of but two words may grow to the
size of a paragraph, and yet be a group of words expressing one
complete thought.
In the sentence below, the subject and predicate are "we are free."
This does not, however, express Burke's complete thought. It is not
what he meant. Free to do what? How free? When may it be done? Why
now? What bill? All these introduce modifications to the simple
assertion, "we are free," modifications which are essential to the
completeness of the thought.
"By the return of this bill, which seemed to have taken its
flight forever, we are at this very instant nearly as free
to choose a plan for our American government as we were on
the first day of the session."
Compound Sentences.
On the other hand, the compound sentence is usually said to consist of
at least two independent clauses; and the very fact of their
independence, which is only a grammatical independence, to be sure,
makes the clauses very nearly independent sentences. So near to
sentences may the clauses be in their independence that some writers
would make them so. The following group of sentences Kipling certainly
could have handled in another way. "The reason for her wandering was
simple enough. Coppy, in a tone of too hastily assumed authority, had
told her over night that she must not ride out by the river. And she
had gone to prove her own spirit and teach Coppy a lesson." Certainly
the last two sentences could be united into a compound sentence, nor
would it be straining the structure to put all three sentences into
one. This example is not exceptional. Many similar cases may be found
in all prose writers; and in Macaulay's writings there are certainly
occasions when it would be better to unite independent sentences. If
the fundamental ideas of the two clauses bear certain definite and
evident relations to each other, they should stand in one compound
sentence. These evident relations are: first, an assertion and its
repetition in some other form; second, an assertion and its contrast;
third, an assertion and its consequence; and fourth, an assertion and
an example. If the clauses do not bear one of these evident relations
to each other, they should receive special attention; for they may be
two separate, independent thoughts requiring for their expression two
sentences. The following sentences illustrate the common relations
that may exist between the clauses of a compound sentence.
_Repetition._ "Nothing has a drift or relation; nothing has a
promise or history."
"But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is
a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the
dissidence of dissent, and the protestantism of the
Protestant religion."
_Contrast._ "If the people approve the way in which these
authorities are interpreting and using the Constitution,
they go on; if the people disapprove, they pause, or at
least slacken their pace."
"Every court is equally bound to pronounce, and competent to
pronounce, on such questions, a State court no less than a
Federal court; but as all the more important questions are
carried by appeal to the supreme Federal court, it is
practically that court whose opinion determines them."
_Consequence._ "The British and American line had run near it
during the war; it had, _therefore,_ been the scene of
marauding, and infested with refugees, cow-boys, and all
kinds of border chivalry."
_Example._ "He found favor in the eyes of the mothers by petting
the children, particularly the youngest; and like the lion
bold, which whilom so magnanimously the lamb did hold, he
would sit with a child on one knee, and rock a cradle with
his foot for whole hours together."
There is another condition which masses many details into one compound
sentence. If in narration a writer wishes to give the impression that
many things are done in a moment of time, and together form one
incident, he may group many circumstances, nearly independent except
for the matter of time, into one compound sentence. In description he
may present groups of details hastily in one sentence, and so give the
impression of unity. The same thing may be done in exposition. Many
independent ideas may bear a common relation to another idea, either
expressed or understood; and in order to get them before the reader as
one whole, the author may group them in a single sentence. The
examples below illustrate this method of sentence development.
_Narration._ "For a moment the terror of Hans Van Ripper's wrath
passed across his mind, for it was his Sunday saddle; but
this was no time for petty fears; the goblin was hard on his
haunches; and (unskillful rider that he was!) he had much
ado to maintain his seat; sometimes slipping on one side,
sometimes on another, and sometimes jolted on the high ridge
of his horse's backbone, with a violence that he verily
feared would cleave him asunder."[43]
_Description._ "In one corner stood a huge bag of wool, ready to
be spun; in another, a quantity of linsey-woolsey just from
the loom; ears of Indian corn, and strings of dried apples
and peaches, hung in gay festoons along the walls, mingled
with the gaud of red peppers; and a door left ajar gave him
a peep into the best parlor, where the claw-footed chairs
and dark mahogany tables shone like mirrors; andirons, with
their accompanying shovel and tongs, glistened from their
covert of asparagus tops; mock oranges and conch shells
decorated the mantelpiece; strings of various-colored birds'
eggs were suspended above it; a great ostrich egg was hung
from the centre of the room, and a corner cupboard,
knowingly left open, displayed immense treasures of old
silver and well-mended china."[43]
_Exposition._ "That perfection of the Intellect, which is the
result of Education, and its _beau idéal,_ to be imparted to
individuals in their respective measures, is the clear,
calm, accurate vision and comprehension of all things, as
far as the finite mind can embrace them, each in its place,
and with its own characteristics upon it. It is almost
prophetic from its knowledge of history; it is almost
heart-searching from its knowledge of human nature; it has
almost supernatural charity from its freedom from littleness
and prejudice; it has almost the repose of faith, because
nothing can startle it; it has almost the beauty and harmony
of heavenly contemplation, so intimate is it with the
eternal order of things and the music of the spheres."[44]
(Notice the use of the semicolon in the last two groups of sentences.
The parts of compound sentences such as these should be separated by
semicolons.)
Short Sentences.
Having determined approximately what relations may be grouped in a
single sentence, the first question for consideration is whether
sentences should be long or short. This cannot be definitely answered.
Since they should be concise, the short sentence is well suited for
definitions. Since a proposition should be announced in as few words
as can be used, without sacrificing brevity to clearness, short
sentences serve best for this purpose. As changes in the direction of
the development of a thought should be quickly indicated, a short
sentence is generally used for transition. And as at times when the
mind is under a stress of strong feeling, or the action of a story is
rapid, all explanatory matters are cut away, the barest statements in
shortest sentences serve best to express strong emotion and rapid
action.
Long Sentences.
Long sentences have the very opposite uses. To amplify a topic, to
develop a proposition by repetition, by details, by proofs, or by
example, long sentences are serviceable; by them the finer
modifications of a thought can be expressed. So, too, a summary of a
paragraph or a chapter frequently employs long sentences to express
the whole thought with precision and with proper subordination of
parts. Again, as short sentences best express haste and intensity, so
long sentences give the feeling of quiet deliberation and dignified
calm.
Illustrations of definitions, propositions, transitions, and
exemplifications are to be found everywhere. Slow movement expressed
by long sentences is well illustrated in Irving and Hawthorne. One
selection from George Meredith, to show the peculiar adaptation of the
short sentence to express intensity of feeling, is given. Richard
Feverel has just learned that the wife whom he had deserted has borne
him a son. Description and narration are mingled. The short, nervous
sentences express both the vividness of his impressions and the
intensity of his emotions.
"A pale gray light on the skirts of the flying tempest
displayed the dawn. Richard was walking hurriedly. The green
drenched woods lay all about his path, bent thick, and the
forest drooped glimmeringly. Impelled as a man who feels a
revelation mounting obscurely to his brain, Richard was
passing one of those little forest-chapels, hung with votive
wreaths, where the peasants halt to kneel and pray. Cold,
still, in the twilight it stood, rain-drops pattering round
it. He looked within, and saw the Virgin holding her Child.
He moved not by. But not many steps had he gone before the
strength went out of him, and he shuddered. What was it? He
asked not. He was in other hands. Vivid as lightning the
Spirit of Life illumined him. He felt in his heart the cry
of his child, his darling's touch. With shut eyes he saw
them both. They drew him from the depths; they led him a
blind and tottering man. And as they led him he had a sense
of purification so sweet he shuddered again and again."
Unity.
In a sentence, as in a theme or a paragraph, the first question
regarding its structure is what to put into it. The germ of a
paragraph is usually a sentence; of the sentence it is one word or but
very few words. This kernel of a sentence may be developed through the
many modifications of the thought; but always the additions must be
distinctly related to the germ words. If this relation of parts to the
kernel of the sentence be unmistakable, the sentence has unity; if
there are parts whose connection with the germ of the sentence cannot
be easily traced, they should be rejected as belonging to another
sentence. The pith of the whole sentence can be stated in a few words,
if the sentence has unity.
Long sentences should be watched. One thing easily suggests another,
interesting too, it may be; and when an essay is to be written,
anything,--especially if it have so worthy a quality as interest to
recommend it,--anything is allowed to go in. Such a sentence as the
following can be explained on no other principle: "Just then James
came rushing downstairs like mad to find the fellow who had punched a
hole in the tire of his bicycle, which was a Columbia which he got two
years before at a second-hand store, paying for it in work at fifteen
cents an hour." Plainly everything after "bicycle" is nothing to the
present purpose and should be excluded. The following from a
description of Cologne Cathedral is as bad, in some respects, worse;
for there is one point where the break is so abrupt that a child would
detect it. "The superintendence was intrusted to Mr. Ahlert, whose
ideas were not well adapted to inspire him for his grand task, under
his direction much of the former beauty and artistical skill was lost
sight of, but at all events it was a great satisfaction to see the
work go on and to have the expenses defrayed by the State." In this
case the writer, beyond doubt, thinks long sentences the correct
thing. Long sentences are necessary at times; but the desire simply to
write long sentences or to fill up space should never lead one to
forget that a sentence is the expression of one--not more--of one
complete thought.
On the other hand, sentences should contain the whole of one thought;
none of it should run over into another sentence. Strange as it may
seem, sentences are sometimes found like the following: "James was on
the whole a bad boy. But he had some redeeming qualities." "The first
day at school was all new to me. While it was interesting as well."
"He said that he was going. And that I might go with him." There is no
ground for an explanation of such errors as these except laziness and
grossest illiteracy. It is by no device so simple as the insertion of
a period that man can separate what has been joined in thought. _And_
and _but_ rarely begin sentences; in nearly all cases it will be found
that the sentences they purport to connect are but the independent
clauses of one compound sentence. _While_ or any other subordinating
conjunction introduces a dependent clause; a dependent clause is not a
sentence; it can never stand alone.
The offenses against the unity of a sentence are including too much
and including too little. Both are the result of carelessness or
inability to think. The purpose, the kernel, the germ of the sentence,
should be so clearly in mind that every necessary modification of the
thought shall be included and every unnecessary phrase be excluded.
Some further suggestions concerning unity are found in the paragraphs
treating primarily of mass and coherence.
Mass.
As advance is made in the ability to grasp quickly the thought of a
book, it becomes more and more evident that the eye must be taken into
account when arranging the parts of a composition. The eye sees the
headings of the chapters; it catches the last words of one paragraph
and the first words of the next; it lights upon the words near the
periods; so the parts of a composition should be arranged so that
these points shall contain worthy words. Moreover, within the sentence
the colon marks the greatest independence of the parts; the semicolon
comes next; and the comma marks the smallest division of thought.
Following the guidance of the eye, then, the words before a period
should be the most important; those near a colon, a semicolon, and a
comma will have a descending scale of value. A speaker has no
difficulty with punctuation; unconsciously he pauses with the thought.
So true is this, that one is inclined to say that if the writer will
read aloud his own composition, and punctuate where he pauses in the
reading, always remembering the rank of the marks of punctuation, he
will not be far from right. It will be noticed that he has paused in
the reading after important words, as if the thought stayed a moment
there for the help of the reader. Naturally we pause after important
words; and conversely, the places of importance in a sentence are near
the marks of punctuation, increasing from the comma to the period.
End of a Sentence.
The end of a sentence is more important than the beginning; and the
difference in value is greater than in a paragraph. In a paragraph the
opening is very important, generally containing the topic. In a
sentence, however, the beginning more often has some phrase of
transition, or some modifier; while it is the end that contains the
gist of the sentence. This fact makes it imperative that no unworthy
matter stand at the end. How important a position it is, and how much
is expected of the final words of a sentence, is evident from the
effect of failure produced by a sentence that closes with weak words.
In the following sentences, phrases have been moved from their places;
the weakness is apparent.
Abstract liberty is not to be found; and this is true of
other mere abstractions.
This is a persuasion built upon liberty, and not only
favorable to it.
I pass, therefore, to their agriculture, another point of
view.
Of course Burke never wrote such sentences as these. However,
sentences like them can be found in school compositions.
"Lincoln's character is worthy to be any young man's ideal;
having in it much to admire."
"Euclid Avenue, with its broad lawns, and with Wade Park as
the fitting climax of its spacious beauty, is the most
attractive driveway in the United States, which is saying a
good deal."
"Minnesota has many beautiful lakes; Mille Lacs, fringed
with dark pines; Osakis, with its beach of glistening sand;
Minnetonka, skirted by a lovely boulevard bordered by cool
lawns and cosy cottages; and many others not so big."
Such sentences as these are not uncommon. Their ruin is wrought by the
closing words. Watch for trailing relatives, dangling participles, and
straggling generalities at the end of sentences. The end of a sentence
is a position of distinction; it should be held by words of
distinction.
So influential is position in a sentence that by virtue of it a word
or a clause of equal rank with others can be made to take on a certain
added authority. By observing the end of a sentence, a reader can
determine what was uppermost in the mind of an author careful of these
things. In the following sentence as it was written by Burke the
emphasis is on the duration of the time; but by a change of position
it is put upon the fact. "Refined policy ever has been the parent of
confusion; and ever will be so, as long as the world endures."
Changing the last clause it reads, "and, as long as the world endures,
ever will be so." This is not weak; but the stress is not where Burke
placed it. The position of the words gives them an importance that
does not inhere in the words themselves.
Effect of Anti-climax.
Still, as the tenure of a place of distinction cannot save a fool from
the reputation of folly, position in a sentence cannot redeem empty
words from their truly insipid character. Indeed, as the imbecility of
a shallow pate is made all the more apparent by a position of
distinction, so is the utter unfitness of certain words for their
position painfully manifest. This is the secret of anti-climax. By
reason of its very position in a sentence, the last phrase should be
distinguished; instead the position is held by a silly nothing.
Disappointing anti-climaxes, like those already cited, are frequently
made by young writers; and they are sometimes met with in the works of
the best authors. The following sentence is from Newman: from the
point of view of an ardent churchman, it may be a climax; but from the
point of view of the general reader who considers the whole greater
than any of its parts, in spite of all the sense preceding the final
phrase, that is absurd and disappointing nonsense.
"I protest to you, gentlemen, that if I had to choose
between a so-called university, which dispensed with
residence and tutorial superintendence, and gave its degrees
to any person who passed an examination in a wide range of
subjects, and a university which had no professors and
examinations at all, but merely brought a number of young
men together for three or four years, and then sent them
away as the University of Oxford is said to have done some
sixty years since, if I were asked which of these methods
was the better discipline of the intellect,--mind, I do not
say which is _morally_ the better, for it is plain that
compulsory study must be a good and idleness an intolerable
mischief,--but if I must determine which of the two courses
was the more successful in training, moulding, and enlarging
the mind, which sent out men the more fitted for their
secular duties, which produced better public men, men of the
world, men whose names would descend to posterity, I have no
hesitation in giving the preference to that university which
did nothing, over that which exacted an acquaintance with
every science under the sun. And, paradox as this may seem,
still if results be the test of systems, the influence of
the public schools and colleges of England, in the course of
the last century, at least will bear out one side of the
contrast as I have drawn it. What could come, on the other
hand, of the ideal systems of education which have
fascinated the imagination of this age, could they ever take
effect, and whether they would not produce a generation
frivolous, narrow-minded, and resourceless, intellectually
considered, is a fair subject for debate; but so far is
certain, that the universities and scholastic
establishments, to which I refer, and which did little more
than bring together first boys and then youths in large
numbers, these institutions, with miserable deformities on
the side of morals, with a hollow profession of
Christianity, and a heathen code of ethics,--I say, at
least, they can boast of a succession of heroes and
statesmen, of literary men and philosophers, of men
conspicuous for great natural virtues, for habits of
business, for knowledge of life, for practical judgment, for
cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who have made
England what it is,--able to subdue the earth, _able to
domineer over Catholics._"[45]
Use of Climax.
From what has been said, it is evident that the parts of a sentence,
as far as may be, should be arranged in a climax. The climax should be
in the thought, with a corresponding increase in the weight of the
phrases. If the thoughts increase in importance, the words that
express them should increase in number. The number of words in the
treatment bears a pretty constant ratio to the importance of the
subject treated. The paragraph quoted from Newman is an excellent
illustration of the use of climax,--until it comes to that last
phrase. Note in the first sentence the repetition of the condition,
three times repeated. Change the second to the third and see how
different it is. Then he has "public men, men of the world, men whose
names would descend to posterity,"--a steady increase in the thought,
and a corresponding increase in the length of phrases. The last
sentence contains a fine example of climax. "Of heroes and statesmen,
of literary men and philosophers, of men conspicuous for great natural
virtues, for habits of business, for knowledge of life, for practical
judgment, for cultivated tastes, for accomplishments, who have made
England what it is,--able to subdue the earth." Climax is the
arrangement that produces the effect of vigorous strength. In
arranging a succession of modifiers, so far as possible without
breaking some other more important principle, a writer will gain in
force if he seeks for climax.
Loose and Periodic.
Sentences are divided into two classes: loose and periodic. A loose
sentence may be broken at some point before the end, and up to that
point be grammatically a complete sentence. An arrangement of the
parts of a sentence that suspends the meaning until the close is
called periodic. The periodic sentence is generally so massed that the
end contains words of distinction, and the sentence forms a climax.
Not all climaxes are periods; but nearly all periods are climaxes.
The Period.
The philosophy of the periodic sentence has been best stated by
Herbert Spencer. He starts with the axiom that the whole amount of
attention a reader can give at any moment is limited and fixed. A
reader must give a part of it to merely acquiring the meaning; the
remainder of his attention he can give to the thought itself. In
reading Cicero the pupil has to put a large part of his attention upon
the vocabulary, upon the order and construction of the words; the
barest fragment of attention he can bestow upon the thought of the
great orator. So when the reader attacks one of Browning's most
involved and obscure passages, he is kept from the thought by the
difficulties in the language. As it is the purpose of language to
convey thought, and as it is usually the wish of an author to be
understood, he should use up as little as possible of the reader's
limited attention for the mere acquisition of the thought, and leave
the reader as much as he can to put upon the meaning. In applying this
to sentences, the question is, which form of sentence demands least
effort to get at its meaning: the periodic sentence, which suspends
the meaning to the end; or the loose sentence, which may be broken at
several points and gives its meaning in installments? The old example
is as good as any: shall we say as the French do, a horse black; or
shall we say as the English do, a black horse? for in the arrangement
of these three words there lies the difference between a loose and a
periodic sentence. Consider the French order first. When a person
hears the words "a horse," he at once thinks of the horse he knows
best; that is, generally, a bay horse. When the word "black" follows,
the whole image has to be changed from the bay horse he knows to the
black horse he has occasionally seen. There has been a waste of
attention. On the other hand, when the words "a black" are heard, the
mind constructs no image; it waits until the noun modified is spoken.
Then the whole image springs up at once; it is correct and it needs no
remodeling. The following sentence illustrates the point. "I am
wasting time" is the beginning. It would be difficult to enumerate the
many thoughts suggested by these words; each person has his own idea
of wasting time. When the rest of the sentence is added, "trying to
learn my geometry lesson," the whole has to be reconstructed. On the
other hand the periodic statement suspends the meaning to the end.
There is no place where, without additions to the words used, the mind
can rest. "Trying to learn a geometry lesson is for me a waste of
time." Theoretically the periodic sentence is better than the loose
sentence; for it economizes attention.
There is another side to the question, however. If the details be
many, and if each be long, they would be more than the mind could
carry without great effort; and instead of economy of attention, there
is improvident waste. The mind will carry a long, carefully arranged
period at intervals; but a succession of periods is sure to result in
its absolute refusal to do so any longer. There is a limit to the
length of a period that economizes attention; and there is a limit to
the number of successive periods which a reader can endure.
Periodic and Loose combined.
There is another form of sentence, which combines the loose and the
periodic. It generally begins with the periodic form and sustains this
until it is better to relieve the mind of the stress, when the period
ends or the loose structure begins; and the sentence may as a whole be
periodic while containing parts that are loose. This kind of sentence
is a common form for long sentences. It gives to prose much of the
dignity of the period, together with the familiarity of the loose
sentence.
The sentence below may be changed, by putting the last clause first,
to a loose sentence; and by placing it after the word "subject" it
becomes mixed.
"By all persons who have written of the subject, for the
grandeur of its mountains and the deep quiet of its green
valleys for the leaping torrents of its foaming rivers and
blue calm of its crag-walled lakes, Switzerland has been
named 'the Paradise of Europe.'"
The following paragraph from Burke contains examples of loose,
periodic, and mixed sentences:--
"To restore order and repose to an empire so great and so
distracted as, ours, is, merely in the attempt, an
undertaking that would ennoble the flights of the highest
genius, and obtain pardon for the efforts of the meanest
understanding. Struggling a good while with these thoughts,
by degrees I felt myself more firm. I derived, at length,
some confidence from what in other circumstances usually
produces timidity. I grew less anxious, even from the idea
of my own insignificance. For, judging of what you are by
what you ought to be, I persuaded myself that you would not
reject a reasonable proposition because it had nothing but
its reason to recommend it. On the other hand, being totally
destitute of all shadow of influence, natural or
adventitious, I was very sure that, if my proposition were
futile or dangerous--if it were weakly conceived, or
improperly timed,--there was nothing exterior to it of power
to awe, dazzle, or delude you. You will see it just as it
is; and you will treat it just as it deserves."[46]
Which shall be used?
Which shall be used, loose sentences or periodic? In literature the
loose more frequently occur. They are informal and conversational, and
are especially suited to letter-writing, story-telling, and the light
essay. The period is formal; it has the air of preparation. The
oration, the formal essay, well-wrought argument,--forms of literature
where preparation is expected,--may use the period with good effect.
It has a finish, a scholarly refinement, not found in the loose
sentence; and yet a series of periods would be as much out of place in
a letter as a court regalia at a downtown restaurant. The loose
sentence is easy, informal, and familiar; the periodic is stiff,
artificial, and aristocratic. To use none but loose sentences gives a
composition an air of familiarity even to the verge of vulgarity; to
employ only periodic sentences induces a feeling of stiff
artificiality bordering on bombast. The fitness of each for its
purpose is the guide for its use.
There is, however, a reason why young persons should be encouraged to
use periodic sentences. Usually they compose short sentences, so there
is little danger of overburdening the reader's attention. With this
danger removed, the result of the generous use of periodic sentences
will be nothing worse than a too obvious preparation. The sentences
will all be finished to a degree, and unquestionably will give a
feeling of artificiality. However, the attention to sentence-structure
necessary in order to make it periodic is a thing devoutly to be
wished at this stage of growth. No other fault is so common in
sentence-construction as carelessness. A theme will be logically
outlined, a paragraph carefully planned, but a sentence,--anybody
standing on one foot can make a sentence. A well-turned sentence is a
work of art, and it is never made in moments when the writer "didn't
think." The end must be seen at the beginning: else it does not end;
it plays out. There is no other remedy for careless, slipshod
sentence-making so effective as the construction of many periodic
sentences.
Not only will there be care in the arrangement of the material, but
when all details must be introduced before the principal thought,
there will be little chance of any phrase slipping into the sentence
that does not in truth belong there. Dangling participles, trailing
relatives, and straggling generalities can find no chance to hang on
to a periodic sentence. Every detail must be a real and necessary
modification of the germ thought of the sentence, else it can hardly
be forced in. Periodic sentences, then, besides insuring a careful
finish to the work, are also a safeguard against the introduction of
irrelevant material,--the commonest offense against sentence-unity.
Emphasis by Change of Order.
Closely connected with the emphasis gained by the periodic arrangement
of the parts of a sentence is the emphasis gained by forcing words out
of their natural order. In a sentence the points which arrest the eye
and the attention are the beginning and the end. However, if the
subject stands first and the words of the predicate in their natural
order, there is no more emphasis upon them than these important
elements of a sentence ordinarily deserve. To emphasize either it is
necessary to force it out of its natural position. "George next went
to Boston," is the natural order of this sentence. Supposing, however,
that a writer wished to emphasize the fact that it was George who went
next, not James or Fred, he could do it by forcing the word "George"
from its present natural position to a position unnatural. He could
write, "It was George who next went to Boston," or, "The next to go to
Boston was George." Forcing the subject toward the position usually
occupied by the predicate emphasizes the subject. This is similar to
the emphasis given by the period. "It was George" is so far periodic,
followed by the loose structure; and the last arrangement is quite
periodic. Every device for throwing the subject back into the sentence
makes the sentence up to the point where the subject is introduced
periodic; this arrangement throws the emphasis forward to the word
that closes the period.
Other parts of a sentence may be emphasized by being placed out of
their natural order. In the natural order, adjectives and adverbs
precede the words they modify; conditional and concessive clauses
precede the clauses they modify; an object follows a verb; and
prepositional phrases and adjective clauses follow the words they
modify. These rules are general. Moving a part of a sentence from this
general order usually emphasizes it. "George went to Boston next"
emphasizes a little the time; but "Next George went to Boston" places
great emphasis on the time. So "It was to Boston that George went
next" emphasizes the place. "Went" cannot be so dealt with. It seems
irrevocably fixed that in a prose declarative sentence the verb shall
never stand first. It is not allowed by good use.
The rearrangement of the following sentence illustrates the emphasis
given by putting words out of their natural order:--
The strong and swarthy sailors of the Patria slowly rowed
the party to the shore.
The sailors of the Patria, strong and swarthy, slowly rowed
the party to the shore.
Slowly the strong and swarthy sailors of the Patria rowed
the party to the shore.
Of the steamer Patria, the sailors, strong and swarthy,
rowed the party to the shore.
To show the arrangement of clauses the following will be sufficient:--
He cannot make advancement, even if he studies hard.
Even if he studies hard, he cannot make advancement.
"Your Irish pensioners would starve, if they had no other
fund to live on than the taxes granted by English
authority."
If they had no other fund to live on than the taxes granted
by English authority, your Irish pensioners would starve.
The latter arrangement emphasizes the conclusion much more than the
former; at the same time it subordinates the condition. Burke wished
the emphasis to be upon the condition; he placed it after the
conclusion.
Subdue Unimportant Elements.
Emphasis is gained by placing words in important positions in a
sentence by arranging the parts to form a climax; by the use of the
period; by forcing words out of their natural order. It is also gained
by the subdual of parts not important. This emphasis is a matter of
relative intensity. The beauty and strength of any artistic product
depend as much upon the subdual of the accessories as upon the
intensifying of the necessaries. In order to get the emphasis upon
certain phrases, it is necessary to subordinate other phrases. In the
talk of a child every thought phrases itself as a simple sentence. Not
until it grows to youth does the child recognize that there is a
difference in values, and adopt means for expressing it. To grasp
firmly the principal idea and then subdue all other ideas is an
elegant way of emphasizing.
The subdual of parts is accomplished by reducing to subordinate
clauses, to phrases, to words, some of the ideas which in a child's
talk would be expressed in sentences. A thought of barely enough
importance to be mentioned should be squeezed into a word. If it
deserves more notice, perhaps a prepositional phrase will express it.
A participial phrase will often serve for a clause or a sentence. A
subordinate clause may be needed if the thought is of great
importance. And last, if it deserves such a distinction, the thought
may demand an independent clause or a sentence for itself. If the
following sentence be broken into bits as a child would tell it, the
nice effects of emphasis which Irving has given it are ruined:--
"When the dance was at an end, Ichabod was attracted to a
knot of the sager folks, who, with old Van Tassel, sat
smoking at one end of the piazza, gossiping over former
times, and drawing out long stories about the war."[47]
Put into simple sentences, it would be like this: The dance was at an
end. Ichabod was attracted to a knot of folks. The folks were older.
They sat at the end of the piazza. Old Van Tassel was with them. They
were smoking, etc.
In such sentences, nothing is emphatic; it is all alike. In Irving's
sentences, where ideas are reduced to clause, phrase, even a word,
there is no question about what is important and what is unimportant.
He has secured an exquisite emphasis by a discriminating subdual of
subordinate ideas.
This brings up the sentences by Kipling already quoted on page 201.
The author has used three independent sentences. They can be written
as one, thus: The reason of her wandering was simple enough; for
Coppy, in a tone of too-hastily-assumed authority, had told her over
night that she must not ride out by the river, and she had gone to
prove her own spirit and teach Coppy a lesson.
There is a reason, however, why Kipling wished that last sentence to
stand alone. Subordinated as it is here rewritten, it does not half
express the spiteful independence she assumed to teach Coppy a lesson.
It needs the independent construction. Just as surely as Kipling is
right in putting the reasons into two sharp, independent sentences, is
Irving right when he puts the reason in the following sentence into a
subordinate clause. It is not important enough to deserve a sentence
all by itself.
"He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great
erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and
was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New
England Witchcraft,' in which, by the way, he most firmly
and potently believed."
In the following sentence the effect of subordination is
unmistakable:--
"He had a name in the village for brutally misusing the ass;
yet it is certain that he shed a tear _which_ made a clean
mark down one cheek."
Now read it again:--
"He had a name in the village for brutally misusing the ass;
yet it is certain that he shed a tear, _and the tear_ made a
clean mark down one cheek."
The last clause has burst away from its former submission, and in its
independence has made the most important announcement of the
sentence,--the witty climax. Emphasis is, to a large degree, a matter
of position, but position cannot emancipate any clause from the
thralldom of subordination. To emphasize one idea, subordinate
ancillary ideas; make them take their proper rank in the sentence.
Reduce them to a clause or to a phrase; and if a word justly expresses
the relative importance of the thought, reduce its expression to a
single word.
The Dynamic Point of a Sentence.
In the chapter on paragraphs it was said that one sentence is often
the source of the succeeding sentence; that such a sentence seemed to
be charged like a Leyden jar, and to discharge its whole power through
a single word or phrase; and further, that this word or phrase should
be left free to act,--it should be uncovered. How a sentence can be
arranged so that this word or phrase shall have the prominence it
deserves, and can unhindered transmit the undiminished force of one
sentence to the next, has now been explained. First, such words can be
made dynamic by placing them at the beginning or the end of a
sentence; second, by placing them near the major marks of punctuation;
third, by forcing them from their natural order; and fourth, by the
subdual of the other parts of the sentence. The greatest care in
massing sentences so that none of their power be lost in transmission
is one of the secrets of the literature that carries the reader
irresistibly forward. Sometimes he may be annoyed by the repetition of
phrases; but he cannot get away; he must go forward. In the paragraph
below, quoted from Matthew Arnold, every phrase that is the point from
which the next sentence springs is in a position where it can act
untrammeled. Through it the whole force of the sentence passes:--
"It will be said that it is a very subtle and indirect
action which I am thus prescribing for criticism, and that,
by embracing in this manner the Indian virtue of detachment
and abandoning the sphere of practical life, it condemns
itself as a slow and obscure work. Slow and obscure it may
be, but it is the only proper work of criticism. The mass of
mankind will never have any ardent zeal for seeing things as
they are; very inadequate ideas will satisfy them. On these
inadequate ideas reposes, and must repose, the general
practice of the world. That is as much as saying that
whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find
himself one of a very small circle; but it is only by this
small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate
ideas will ever get current at all. The rush and uproar of
practical life will always have a dizzying and attracting
effect upon the most collected spectator, and tend to draw
him into its vortex; most of all will this be the case where
that life is so powerful as it is in England. But it is only
by remaining collected, and refusing to lend himself to the
point of view of the practical man, that the critic can do
the practical man any service; and it is only by the
greatest sincerity in pursuing his own course, and by at
last convincing even the practical man of his sincerity,
that he can escape misunderstandings which perpetually
threaten him."[48]
Good Use.
Good use has been mentioned. In massing the parts of a sentence for
the purpose of emphasizing some idea, a writer has not entire freedom.
Good use, which is the use of acknowledged masters, decides what may
be done. There are certain arrangements of words to which we are
accustomed; and the disregard of them leads to obscurity or downright
contrariety in the thought. "Brutus stabbed Cæsar" is the common
order; "Brutus Cæsar stabbed," or "Stabbed Brutus Cæsar," is obscure;
while "Cæsar stabbed Brutus" is the very opposite of the truth. Those
who have studied Latin know that as far as understanding the sentence
is concerned, it would make no difference in which order the three
Latin words should be arranged; though it would make a mighty
difference in the emphasis. In Latin the case endings determine the
construction of the words. In an inflected language the words may be
massed almost to suit the writer; in an uninflected language, within
certain limits the order determines the relation between groups of
words. Though for emphasis it might be advisable to have the object
first, for the sake of clearness in a short sentence the object cannot
stand first. The primary consideration in making any piece of
literature is that it may be understood. To be understood, the
sentence must be arranged in the order to which we are accustomed. The
order to which we are accustomed has been determined by good use.
The variety in the arrangement of the parts of a sentence that has
been sanctioned by good usage is great, yet there are limits. Grammar
is based upon the usage of the best writers. Any offense against the
grammar of our language is a sin against good use. Browning may use
constructions so erratic that the ordinary reader does not know what
he is reading about; Carlyle may forge a new word rather than take the
trouble to find one that other people have used. But the young writer,
at least, is far safer while keeping within the limits of good use.
Clearness gained by Coherence.
Coherence in a sentence is that principle of structure by which its
parts are best arranged to stick together. The parts of a sentence
containing related ideas should be so associated that there can be no
mistake regarding the reference or the modification. Such a sentence
as the following cannot be understood; the reference is obscure.
"James told him that he did not see what he was to do in the matter."
If the reader were sure of the first "he," he could not come nearer
than a guess at the reference of the second "he." The third personal
pronoun--he, she, it--in all its cases is especially uncertain in its
references.
The first sentence below is from an English grammar. The second is
from a recently published biography. Both are obscure in the reference
of the pronouns.
"When 'self' is added to a pronoun of the First and Second
person, it is preceded by the Possessive case. But when it
is added to a pronoun of the Third person, it is preceded by
a pronoun in the Objective case."
"I am reminded of Swinburne's view of Providence when he
said that he never saw an old gentleman give a sixpence to a
beggar, but he was straightway run over by a 'bus."
The relative pronoun is also uncertain in its references.
Some Southerners were among the ship's passengers, of whom a
few had served in the Rebellion. (Obscure reference.)
Red lights were displayed in a peculiar succession, which
warned of impending storm. (No antecedent.)
To make the reference of pronouns, personal and relative, distinct,
the antecedent must be made prominent; sometimes the only way out of
the difficulty is a repetition of the antecedent. And the pronoun
should stand near the word to which it refers. Keep associated ideas
together.
Like pronouns in the uncertainty of their reference are participles.
Either the subject is not expressed, or it is uncertain.
Hastening up the steps, the door opened. (None.)
Coming from the spring, with a pail of water in either hand,
he saw her for the first time. (Uncertain.)
Adverbs are sometimes placed so that they make a sentence ridiculous;
and frequently their meaning is lost by being separated from the words
they modify. "Only" is a word to be watched. Like adverbs are
correlative conjunctions. They are frequently so placed that they do
not join the elements they were intended to unite.
He seized the young girl as she rose from the water almost
roughly.
I think I hardly shall.
I only went as far as the gate.
"Who shall say, of us who know only of rest and peace by
toil and strife?"
He not only learned algebra readily but also Latin.
Phrases and clauses may lose their reference by being removed from the
words they modify.
Toiling up the hill, he arrived at Hotel Bellevue through a
drizzling rain.
Addison rose to a post which dukes, the heads of the great
houses of Talbot, Russell, and Bentinck, have thought it an
honor to fill without high birth, and with little property.
"Fred was liked well; but he had the habit of that class
that cannot get the English Language in the right order when
a little excited."
All the classes of errors which have been exemplified here are due to
the infringement of one rule: things that belong together in thought
should stand together in composition. Nothing should be allowed to
come between a pronoun, an adjective, an adverb, a correlative, a
phrase, or a clause, and the word it modifies. Sometimes other
modifiers have to be taken into account: where more than one word or
phrase modifies the same word, a trial will have to be made to arrange
them so that there shall be no obscurity or absurdity. Keep related
ideas together; keep unrelated ideas apart.
Parallel Construction.
The second principle which helps to make the relation of parts clear
is parallel construction. It has already been explained in paragraphs.
In sentences the commonest errors are in linking an infinitive with a
gerund, a participle with a verb, an active with a passive voice, a
phrase with a clause. The result is sentences like the following:--
You cannot persuade him to go and into buying what he does
not want.
Thus he spoke, and turning to the door.
The king began to force the collection of duties, and an
army was sent by him to execute his wishes.
He was resolved to use patience and that he would often
exercise charity.
Such sentences are offensive to the ear; and were they as long as the
ones below, they would not be clear.
"You cannot persuade them _to burn_ their books of curious
science; _to banish_ their lawyers from their courts of
laws; or _to quench_ the lights of their assemblies by
refusing to choose those persons who are best read in their
privileges."
"For though rebellion is declared, it _is_ not _proceeded
against_ as such, nor _have_ any steps _been taken_ towards
the apprehension or conviction of any individual offender,
either on our late or our former Address; but modes of
public coercion _have been adopted,_ and such as have much
more resemblance to a sort of qualified hostility towards an
independent power than the punishment of rebellious
subjects."
"My Resolutions therefore mean TO ESTABLISH the equity and
justice of a taxation of America by grant and not by
imposition; TO MARK the legal competency of the colony
Assemblies for the support of their government in peace, and
for public aids in time of war; TO ACKNOWLEDGE _that this
legal competency has had_ a dutiful and beneficial exercise;
and _that experience has shown_ the benefit of their grants,
and the futility of Parliamentary taxation as a method of
supply."[49]
In the second sentence Burke has used a passive voice when it would
certainly be more elegant to change to the active. "Is proceeded
against" is surely awkward, but for uniformity and resulting clearness
he has retained the passive. In the last sentence the infinitives "to
establish," "to mark," and "to acknowledge" are in the same
construction; they are objects of "mean." Then comes a change of form
to show that the clauses "that this legal competency has had," etc.,
and "that experience has shown," etc., are in a like relation to the
infinitive "to acknowledge." Though the last clause by reason of the
punctuation looks correlative with the others, it is not related as
object to the verb "mean," as the others are, but it is the object of
"to acknowledge." There could hardly be a better example of the value
of parallel constructions for the purpose of avoiding confusion, and
linking together parts that are related.
Balanced Sentences.
Parallel constructions are used in balanced sentences. In balanced
sentences one part is balanced against another,--a noun and a noun, an
adjective and an adjective, phrase and phrase. Balanced sentences are
especially suited to express antithesis, the figure of speech where
two ideas are sharply opposed to each other. In the following from
Newman, the balancing is admirable: "Inebriated with the cup of
insanity, and flung upon the stream of recklessness, she dashes down
the cataract of nonsense and whirls amid the pools of confusion." This
is not antithesis, however; but the following from Macaulay is: "She
seems to have written about the Elizabethan age, because she had read
much about it; she seems, on the other hand, to have read a little
about the age of Addison, because she had determined to write about
it."
The danger in the use of balanced sentences is excess. Macaulay is
very fond of brilliant contrasts. _But_ is a very common word with
him. In some cases the reader feels that for the sake of the figure he
has forced the truth. Balanced sentences are palpably artificial, and
should be used but sparingly.
There is, however, but little danger of overdoing the parallel
construction where there is no antithesis. The parts of succeeding
sentences do not resemble each other so much in thought that there is
great danger of resulting monotony in its expression. However, should
the difficulty arise, the monotony may be broken up by a trifling
variation. Macaulay has done this well in the sentences quoted on page
186, beginning with the words, "For his sake empires had risen, and
flourished, and decayed," and continuing to the end of the paragraph.
Use of Connectives.
The third method of securing coherence in a sentence is by the use of
connectives. The skillful use of prepositions and conjunctions
indicates a master of words. The use of connectives has been discussed
when treating of emphasis secured by subdual of unimportant details.
Such parts are connected, and in a very definite way. The relations
are evident. Two examples will illustrate. The first group of
sentences are the fragments of but one of Irving's.
He did not look to the right or left. He did not notice the
scene. The scene was of rural wealth. He had often gloated
on this scene. He went straight to the stable. He kicked and
cuffed his steed several times, and so forth.
Now note the value of prepositions in giving these separate sentences
coherence.
"Without looking to the right or left to notice the scene of
rural wealth, on which he had so often gloated, he went
straight to the stable, and with several hearty cuffs and
kicks roused his steed most unceremoniously from the
comfortable quarters in which he was soundly sleeping,
dreaming of mountains of corn and oats, and whole valleys of
timothy and clover."
The next also is from Irving, and shows the skillful use of
conjunctions to point out unerringly the relation of the clauses in a
sentence.
"What seemed particularly odd to Rip was that, though these
folks were evidently amusing themselves, yet they maintained
the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence, and were,
withal, the most melancholy party of pleasure he had ever
witnessed."
Coherence, the principle of structure that surely holds the parts of a
sentence together, is of greater importance than Mass. Upon Coherence
depends the meaning of a sentence; upon Mass the force with which the
meaning is expressed. That the meaning may be clear, it is necessary
that the relation of the parts shall be perfectly evident. This
lucidity is gained by placing related parts near together, and
conversely, by separating unrelated ideas; by using parallel
constructions for parallel thoughts; and by indicating relations by
the correct use of prepositions and conjunctions.
To summarize, sentences are the elements of discourse. The ability of
a sentence to effect with certainty its purpose depends upon Unity,
Mass, and Coherence. A sentence must contain all that is needed to
express the whole thought, but it must contain no more. A sentence
must be arranged so that its important parts shall be prominent.
Position and proportion are the means of emphasis in a sentence. By
placing the important words near the major marks of punctuation, by
arranging the parts in a climax or a period, by forcing words out of
the natural order, and by subduing unimportant details, a sentence is
massed to give the important elements their relative emphasis. Last,
the parts of a sentence should be arranged so that their relations
shall be clear and unmistakable. Proximity of related parts, parallel
construction for parallel ideas, and connectives are the surest means
of securing Coherence in a sentence.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS
SILAS MARNER.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 83.)
On page 18 put together the sentence beginning "Every man's work,"
etc., with the next. What connective and what punctuation will you
use? What is the difference in effect? What one of the relations of a
compound sentence does the second part bear to the first?
On page 26 could you make two sentences of the sentence beginning,
"Raveloe lay low among the bushy trees"? Would it be as well? Would it
be better?
On page 35 do the three parts of the compound sentence beginning, "He
would have liked," etc., belong to one sentence? Which one?
Is it right to say, "He would have liked to spring," or would it be
better to say, "He would have liked to have sprung"?
Do you think colons are used too frequently in Silas Marner? Compare
their use with their use in Hawthorne's Stories and Irving's Sketches.
In the sentence beginning, "Let him live," etc., at the bottom of page
94, is "a possible state of mind in some possible person not yet
forthcoming," a climax or an anti-climax? Why?
At the bottom of page 183 why was it necessary to crowd so much into
one sentence?
MACAULAY'S ESSAY ON MILTON.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 103.)
Re-write the sentence on page 33 beginning, "Of all poets," etc.,
making it loose. Is it better or worse?
Why does "here" stand first in the next sentence?
What poets with whom you are familiar have philosophized too much?
Is the first sentence of the paragraph beginning in the middle of page
36 periodic or loose?
How many periodic sentences in this paragraph?
In the paragraph on pages 37 and 38 trace the relation of the
succeeding sentences.
At the bottom of page 45 what is the reason for putting first in the
sentence, "of those principles"? What do you think of the massing of
the whole sentence? What has been made emphatic?
Note the last two sentences at the end of the paragraph on page 58. Is
their arrangement effective? Change one. What is the effect? (See also
the middle of page 64.)
On page 60 why did he not say, "She grovels like a beast, she hisses
like a serpent, she stings like a scorpion"?
What arrangement of clauses in the first sentence in the paragraph
beginning at the bottom of page 66? Does it add clearness?
In the same paragraph find a balanced sentence.
What advantage is there in the short sentences on page 68?
In the first sentence of the paragraph, beginning on page 71, read one
of the clauses, "by whom king, church, and aristocracy were trampled
down." What is the effect of the change?
Is the parallel construction in the last sentence beginning on page 77
good? Is it good in the last sentence of this paragraph?
In the next paragraph, why is Macaulay's way better than this: "He was
neither Puritan, free thinker, nor royalist"?
When a sentence is introduced by a participial phrase or a dependent
clause it is in part or wholly periodic. Does Macaulay frequently use
this introduction? What is the effect upon his style?
Can you find examples of sentences beginning with a loose structure,
and having within them examples of the periodic structure?
In the paragraph filling pages 79 and 80 there are many examples of
periodic and parallel structure. Contrast this paragraph with some of
Lamb's paragraphs.
What is the effect of position upon the phrase, "Even in his hands,"
on page 67?
When Macaulay inverts the order of a sentence does he usually do it
for emphasis or to secure coherence?
Does he use many pronouns and conjunctions?
Does he repeat words?
BURKE'S SPEECH ON CONCILIATION WITH THE COLONIES.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 100.)
How many sentences in the first paragraph are periodic?
What kind of sentences in paragraph 10?
What is the effect of this paragraph?
Notice the arrangement of loose and periodic clauses in the last
sentence in paragraph 12. Make this sentence entirely loose.
In the long sentence in paragraph 25 do the he's and him's all refer
to the same person?
What would you say of Burke's use of pronouns?
Find examples of balanced sentences in this oration.
Are you ever astray regarding Burke's meaning?
What has he done to gain clearness?
For what purpose does he frequently use questions?
WEBSTER'S BUNKER HILL ORATION.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 56.)
What relation has the second sentence of paragraph 1 to the first?
Is the last sentence in paragraph 3 clear? How has he made it so?
Compare this sentence with the one beginning at the bottom of page 12.
In the last sentence of paragraph 6 where does loose structure change
to the periodic?
In paragraph 7 why would it be a blemish to write, "That we may keep
alive similar sentiments"?
Why does he repeat "We wish" so many times? Why did he not substitute
synonyms?
In paragraph 18 why has he used the word "interest" more than once? If
the thought is to be repeated, why not some other word?
In the eighth sentence of paragraph 21 is the structure periodic or
loose?
Reverse the order of clauses in the last sentence of paragraph 28.
What is the effect?
* * * * *
CHAPTER IX
WORDS
A word is the sign of an idea. Whether the idea be an object, a
quality, an action, simple existence, or a relation, if it be
communicated to another, it must have some sign; in language these
signs are words. Infinitely varied are the ideas man has to express.
Each day, each moment, has its new combination of circumstances; yet
by the common person the effect of the novel situation is described as
"horrid" or "awful" or "perfectly lovely." Three adjectives to
describe all creation! No wonder that people are constantly
misunderstood; that others do not get their ideas. How can they? Do
the best the master can, the thought will not pass from him to his
reader without considerable deflection. He cannot say exactly what he
would. His words do not hold the same meaning for him as for others.
"Mother" to him is a dear woman with a gentle voice, always dressed in
black, sitting by the window of home; to another she is a shrieking
termagant, whose phrases are punctuated by blows. There is not a word
that means exactly the same to two persons; yet with words men must
express their thoughts, their feelings, their hopes, their
purposes,--always changing, ever new,--and for all this shall they use
but a few score of words? Words are the last, least elements of
language; without these least elements, these atoms of language, no
sentence, however simple, can be made; by means of them, the master
drives mobs to frenzy or soothes the pain of eternal loss. The calm
and peace which Emerson knew, we know; the perpetual benediction of
past years which Wordsworth felt, all may feel. These thoughts masters
have expressed in words, but not in three words. Thousands are not
enough accurately to transfer their visions of this changing universe
from them to us. Ideas infinite in their variety demand for their
expression all the means which our language has placed at the disposal
of the master. For this true expression the whole dictionary with its
thousands of words is all too small.
Need of a Large Vocabulary.
Whoever hopes to be understood must acquire a full, rich vocabulary.
However clearly he may think, however much he may feel, until he has
words, the thought, the emotion, must remain his alone. To get a
vocabulary, then, is a person's business. He who has it can command
him who has it not. Not in literature alone, but in business,--in
medicine, in law, behind the accountant's desk or the salesman's
counter,--he is master who can say what he means so that the person to
whom he speaks must know just what he means. Now it is a singular
truth that when we read any great author, the words which we do not
understand are remarkably few. Even in Shakespeare there are not many;
and the few are unknown by reason of a constantly changing vocabulary.
It was probably true then, as it would certainly be to-day, that the
large majority of audiences lost not a word of his fifteen thousand,
while they themselves used less than eight hundred. We know what
others say; yet we say nothing ourselves. What a vocabulary one could
accumulate, if from six to eighteen he added only two words a day!
Twelve years, and each year more than seven hundred words! It does not
look a difficult task. Children do more, and never realize the
superiority of their achievement. Nine thousand words at eighteen!
Shakespeare alone used more. Macaulay needed scarcely six thousand.
Dictionary.
How shall a vocabulary be accumulated? One method is by the use of a
dictionary; and many persons find it a source of great pleasure. The
genealogy and biography of words are as fascinating to a devoted
philologist as stamps to a philatelist or cathedrals to an architect.
"Canteen" is quite an unassuming little word. Yet imperious Cæsar knew
it in its childhood. The Roman camp was laid out like a small city,
with regular streets and avenues. On one of these streets called the
"Via Quintana" all the supplies were kept. When the word passed into
the Italian, it became "cantina;" and cantinas may be found among all
nations who have drawn their language from the Latin. There is this
difference, however: that whereas eatables were to be had in the Roman
quintana, only drinkables can be found in the Italian cantina. When
the English adopted the word, the middle meaning, a place where wines
are stored, a wine-cellar, came to be a small flask especially fitted
for the rough usage of a soldier's life, in which a necessary supply
of some sort of liquid may be carried. So the name of a street has
become the much-berated canteen of the sutler and the much needed
canteen of the soldier. The dictionary is full of such fascinating
biographies. Still its fascination is not the reason why most people
study the dictionary: it is because such a study is necessary for the
person who hopes for an accurate knowledge of the words he reads. It
is not impossible to know "pretty nearly what it means" from the
context; but no master uses words without knowing exactly what they
mean. Certainty of meaning precedes frequency of use; and this
necessary confidence is gained from a study of the dictionary. In a
general way we know all the words of Macaulay's vocabulary; but the
average man uses only eight hundred of them. His knowledge of words is
no more than an indistinct, mumbling knowledge. To lift each word out
of its context, to make it a distinct, living entity, capable of
serving, the definition must be studied. Then the student knows just
what service the word is fitted for, and finds a pleasure in being
competent to command that service. The dictionary is a necessity to
the person who hopes to use words.
Study of Literature.
Yet the knowledge of words that the student derives from the
dictionary is not sufficient. When one hears an educated foreigner
speak, he detects little errors in his use of words,--errors which are
not the fault of definition, but errors in the idiomatic use of words.
This use cannot be learned from a dictionary, where words are studied
individually, but only by studying them in combination with other
words where the influence of one word upon another may be noted. There
is little difference in the size of a pile of stones, whether we say a
great pile of stones or a large pile of stones; but a great man is of
much more consequence than a large man. A dictionary could hardly have
told a foreigner this. A man may pursue or chase a robber, as the
author wishes; but he may not chase a course. Prepositions are
especially liable to be misused, and their correct use comes from a
study of literature, not of the dictionary. The nice and
discriminating refinements in the use of words are learned by careful
reading. When a phrase is met, such as "the steep and solitary eastern
heaven," where each word has been born to a new beauty; or this, "And
the sweet city with her dreaming spires," where the adjectives "sweet"
and "dreaming" have a richer content, they should be regarded with
great care and greeted with even more delight than words entirely new.
How to read that we may gain this complete mastery of words, Mr.
Ruskin has best told us in "Sesame and Lilies." Every person should
know "Of Kings' Treasuries" by reading and re-reading. Literature, the
way masters have used words, will furnish a knowledge of the nicer
discriminations in their use.
The dictionary and literature are the sources of a full and refined
vocabulary. But the vocabulary which may be perfectly understood is
not entirely in one's possession until it is used. Seek the first
opportunity to use the newly acquired word. It will be hard to utter
it; you will feel an effort in getting it out. Only once, however;
after that it rises as easily as any old familiar word. Because the
companion with whom you speak is always "just as mad as" she can be,
is no reason why you may not at times be vexed, annoyed, aggravated,
exasperated, or angry. Men are not always either "perfectly lovely" or
"awful;" neither are all ladies "jewels." There are degrees of
villainy and nobility; and all jewels have not the same lustre. Know
what you want to say, and find the one word that will exactly say it.
This costs work, it is true; but what is there worth having which has
not cost some one work? Do the work; search for the word; then use it.
In this way a vocabulary becomes a real possession.
The words which a person may use are generally described as reputable,
national, and present. Words must be reputable; that is, sanctioned by
the authority of the creators of English literature. They must be
national; words that are the property of the mass of the people, not
of a clique or a district. And they must be of the present; Chaucer's
vocabulary, though it be the source of English, will not satisfy the
conditions of to-day.
Vulgarisms are not reputable.
First, words must be of reputable use. No person would consider
vulgarisms reputable. When a person says "I hain't got none," he has
reached about the acme of vulgarisms, the language of the illiterate.
Grammar has been disregarded; a word has been used which is not a
word; and another word has no reason for its appearance in the
sentence. Yet sometimes this expression is heard; seldom seen written.
It is always set down to the account of an illiterate home; for no one
can reach a high school without knowing its grammatical errors. The
unerring use of _don't, me, I, lie, lay, set,_ and _sit,_ is not so
assured that the list can be omitted. Adjectives are used for adverbs;
"real good" is not yet forgotten. Nouns are called upon to do the work
of verbs. This is the language of the illiterate, and it should be
avoided; for vulgarisms are not reputable.
Slang is not reputable.
Neither is slang reputable. He would be a prude who would not
recognize that slang is sometimes right to the point; and that many of
our strongest idioms were originally slang. Still, although many
phrases which to-day are called slang were at one time reputable, the
fact of their respectable birth cannot save them from the slight
imputation that now they are slang. Notwithstanding the fact that we
owe some of our strongest idioms to slang, the free use of slang
always vulgarizes. It generally is called upon to supply a deficiency
either in thought or in the power of expression. People too lazy to
think, too indolent to read, with little to say, and but a few slang
phrases to say it with, may be allowed to practice this vulgarity; but
cultured persons in cultured conversation will eschew all acquaintance
with it. To find it in the serious composition of educated persons
always raises a question of their refinement. It is the stock in trade
of the lazy and the uncultured. It is used to divert attention from
poverty of thought and a threadbare vocabulary. It is unnecessary for
the complete expression of thought by the scholar and man of
refinement.
It is a real misfortune that many good words have been tarnished by
the handling of the illiterate. "Awful," "horrid," and "lovely" are
good words; but they have been sullied by common use. So common have
they become that they approach slang. They may be rescued from that
charge in each person's writing, if he shows by accurate use of them
that he is master of their secret strength.
Milton wrote in "Paradise Lost:"--
"No! let us rather choose,
Armed with Hell-flames and fury, all at once
O'er Heav'n's high towers to force resistless way,
Turning our tortures into _horrid_ arms
Against the Torturer."
Lord Lytton makes Richelieu exclaim:--
"Look where she stands! Around her form I draw
The _awful_ circle of our solemn church."
And in the New Testament we read:--
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever
things are pure, whatsoever things are _lovely,_ whatsoever
things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things."
There is no question here of the words; they have all the freshness
and vigor of their youth. Do not hesitate to use such words exactly.
When the thought calls for them, they say with certainty what can be
expressed only doubtfully by other words.
Words must be national. Provincialisms.
Second, words must be of national use. They cannot be words confined
to a locality. When Morris talks of a house that has been "gammoned,"
he deprives a large number of readers of his meaning. "Gums" and
"brasses" may be good in certain districts of England, but in
literature they should not be used, for they would not generally be
understood. For the same reason much of the common conversation of the
South is foreign to a native of New York. Whoever employs the language
of a locality limits his circle of readers to that locality. To write
for all he must use the language of all; he must avoid provincialisms.
Technical and Bookish Words.
Like words that are used by a small region are words which are
understood by a clique of persons. Scholars are inclined to use a
scholarly vocabulary. The biologist has one; the chemist another; the
philosopher a third. This technical vocabulary may be a necessity at
times; but when a specialist addresses the public, his words must be
the words which an average cultured man can understand. Such words can
be found if the writer will look for them; if he does not, his work
can scarcely be called literature. Technical words and bookish terms
are not words of national use.
The following by Josiah Royce illustrates how clearly a most abstruse
topic can be handled by a man willing to take the trouble:[50]--
"If you ask what sort of thing this substance is, the first
answer is, that it is something eternal; and that means, not
that it lasts a good while, but that no possible temporal
view of it could exhaust its nature. All things that happen
result from the one substance. This surely means that what
happens now and what happened millions of years ago are, for
the substance, equally present and necessary results. To
illustrate once more in my own way: A spider creeping back
and forth across a circle could, if she were geometrically
disposed, measure out in temporal succession first this
diameter, and then that. Crawling first over one diameter,
she would say, 'I now find this so long.' Afterwards
examining another diameter, she would say, 'It has now
happened that what I have just measured proves to be
precisely as long as what I measured some time since, and no
longer.' The toil of such a spider might last many hours,
and be full of such successive measurements, each marked by
a spun thread of web. But the true circle itself within
which the web was spun, the circle in actual space as the
geometer knows it, would its nature be thus a series of
events, a mere succession of spun threads? No, the true
circle would be timeless, a truth founded in the nature of
space, outlasting, preceding, determining all the weary
web-spinning of this time-worn spider. Even so we, spinning
our web of experience in all its dreary complications in the
midst of the eternal nature of the world-embracing
substance, imagine that our lives somehow contain true
novelty, discover for the substance what it never knew
before, invent new forms of being. We fancy our past wholly
past, and our future wholly unmade. We think that where we
have yet spun no web, there is nothing, and that what we
long ago spun has vanished, broken by the winds of time into
nothingness. It is not so. For the eternal substance there
is no before and after; all truth is truth. 'Far and forgot
to me is near,' it says. In the unvarying precision of its
mathematical universe, all is eternally written.
'Not all your piety nor wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out one word of it.'"
Foreign Words.
Words and phrases from a foreign language should be used only as a
last resort. _Bon mot, sine qua non,_ and _dolce far niente_ are all
very apt, and to a person like Mr. Lowell, who was intimately
acquainted with many languages, they may come as soon as their English
equivalents. In the case of such a person, the reason why they should
not be used is that the reader cannot understand them. But when a
young smatterer uses them to advertise his calling acquaintance with a
language, he is but proclaiming his own lack of good taste. In his
composition they are as ineffective to make it respectable as a large
diamond on a gamester's finger to make him an honored gentleman. Use
the English language when writing for English-speaking people. It has
the fullest, richest vocabulary in the world. It will not be found
unequal to the task of expressing your thoughts.
Words in Present Use.
Third, words should be in present use. Words may be so new that people
do not know them; they may have passed out of use after years of good
service. Of new words, but little can be said. The language constantly
changes. New discoveries and inventions demand new words. What ones
will be more than temporary cannot be prophesied. "Blizzard" and
"mugwump" were new but a short time ago: the latter is dying from
disuse, the former has come to stay. In this uncertainty one thing can
be said, however. No word which has not secured recognition should be
used by a young person, if by reputable words already in the language
he can express his meaning. And just as he should not be the first to
take up an untried word, so the young writer should not be the last to
drop a dead one. There is at present a sort of fad for old English. A
large number of words that have been resting quietly in their graves
for centuries have been called forth. Some may enjoy a second life;
most of them will feel only the weakness of a second obsolescence.
"Foreword" and "inwit" were good once; but "preface" and "conscience"
mean as much and have the advantage of being alive. To be understood
use the words of the present.
Words in their Present Meaning.
Use words in their present signification. Not only has language cast
out many words; it has changed many others so that they are hardly
recognized. When Chaucer wrote,
"Ther may no man Mercury mortify
But hit be with his brother knowleching,"
"mortify" meant to make dead, to kill. To-day a lady may say she was
mortified to death; but that is hyperbole. In "Paradise Lost" Satan
may
"Through the palpable obscure find out
His uncouth way."
But a person to-day is not justified in using "uncouth" for "unknown."
The works of Shakespeare and Milton abound in words whose life has
been prolonged to the present, but whose signification has been
changed. The writer who seeks to use words with these old meanings is
standing in his own light. Such use always attracts attention to the
words themselves, and by so much subtracts attention from the thought.
Words of Latin and Saxon Origin.
Words that are in good use have been divided into two classes, as they
have been drawn from two sources. Some differences between Anglo-Saxon
and Latin words are marked. Saxon words are generally short; Latin
words long. The first are the words of home and are concerned with the
necessities of life; the second are the words of the court and the
adornments of polite society. The former made the foundation of our
language and gave to it its idiomatic strength; the latter came later,
and added to the strength of the language its grace and refinement.
In our speech there can be no doubt that short words are used when the
purpose is to be understood quickly, even harshly, while the longer
words are frequently employed for saying unpleasant things pleasantly.
Euphemism, the choice of words not harsh for harsh ideas, has its
uses. It is not always wrong to say, "He was taken away" for "He was
killed." But when the plain truth is to be spoken, when, as in most
composition, the object is to be understood, the words should be
chosen which exactly express the thought, be those words Latin or
Saxon. For any one to say, "Was launched into eternity" for "Was
hanged," or "When the fatal noose was adjusted about the neck of the
unfortunate victim of his own unbridled passions" for "When the halter
was put around his neck," is a useless parade of vocabulary.[51] One
knows that such phrases are made by a writer who is ignorant of the
value of words, or by a penny-a-liner, willing to sacrifice every
effect of language to the immediate needs of his purse. Such writing
has no power. The words are dictated by too low a motive to have any
force in them. Let a writer go straight to the point as directly as
the hindrances of language will allow. Even then his expression will
lag behind his thought.
This does not mean that one is to use Saxon words always. It means
that one shall use the words that say exactly what is to be said, so
that the reader can get the exact thought with the least outlay of
attention to the words. Latin words are as common as Saxon words. To
search out a Saxon word because it is Saxon and short is as
reprehensible as to use the indirection of Latin words where
directness is wanted. Latin words have a place; they express the finer
distinctions and gradations of thought. In the discussion of any
question requiring nice precision of statement Latin words are
necessary. In the following from Newman, it would be difficult,
perhaps impossible, to substitute words of Anglo-Saxon origin for the
words of Latin origin, and could it be done, the passage would not
then have the clearness it now has from his use of common words,
though they be Latin:--
"I mean then by the Supreme Being, one who is simply
self-dependent, and the only Being who is such; moreover,
that He is without beginning or Eternal, and the only
Eternal; that in consequence He has lived a whole eternity
by Himself; and hence that He is all-sufficient, sufficient
for his own blessedness, and all-blessed, and ever-blessed.
Further, I mean a Being who, having these prerogatives, has
the Supreme Good, or rather is the Supreme Good, or has all
the attributes of good in infinite intenseness; all wisdom,
all truth, all justice, all love, all holiness, all
beautifulness; who is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent;
ineffably one, absolutely perfect; and such that what we do
not know of Him is far more wonderful than what we do and
can."[52]
Latin words, moreover, have a fullness of sound which gives them an
added weight and dignity. One would hesitate long before changing one
of Milton's big-sounding phrases, even if he were not compelled to
sacrifice the metre. In Webster's orations there is a dignity, a
sublimity, gained by the use of full-mouthed polysyllables. Supposing
he had said at the beginning of his eulogy of Adams and Jefferson,
"This is a new sight" instead of "This is an unaccustomed spectacle,"
the whole effect of dignified utterance commensurate with the occasion
would have been lost. The oration abounds in examples of reverberating
cadences. Milton's sentences are a stately procession of gorgeous
words: the dignified pomp of the advance is occasioned by the wealth
of essential beauty and historical association in the individual
words:--
"That proud honor claimed
Azazel as his right, a Cherube tall:
Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurl'd
Th' imperial ensign, which, full high advanc't
Shon like a meteor streaming to the wind,
With gemms and golden lustre rich emblaz'd
Seraphic arms and trophies; all the while
Sonorous metall blowing martial sounds:
At which the universal host up-sent
A shout that tore Hell's concave, and beyond
Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Night.
All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air,
With orient colours waving; with them rose
A forrest huge of spears; and thronging helms
Appear'd, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable." ("Paradise Lost.")
The choice of words does not depend on whether they are of Latin or of
Saxon origin. In use it will be found that short words, like short
sentences, give more directness and force to the composition; while
long words have a dignified elegance and refinement of discrimination
not the property of monosyllables. No one should think, however, that
short words cause the force or long words cause the dignity. These
qualities belong to the thought; the completeness of its expression is
approached by a choice in words. Choose words for their fitness to say
what you think, or feel, or purpose, having no regard for their
origin.
General and specific.
Words are also classified as general and specific. By a general word
is meant a word common to or denoting a large number of ideas. By
specific is meant a word that denotes or specifies a single idea.
"Man," "move," "bad," are general and denote a large number of ideas;
while "Whittier," "glide," "thieving," are specific, denoting but one
man, one movement, one kind of badness. "Man" denotes the whole human
race, while it implies a feeling, thinking, speaking, willing animal.
"Whittier" denotes but a single person, but beside all the common
qualities implied by the, word "man," "Whittier" suggests, among other
things, a homely face, serious and kind, a poet, and an anti-slavery
worker.
Use Words that suggest most.
As a principle in composition, it may be said that the more a word or
phrase can be made to imply or suggest, while at the same time
expressing all that the writer wishes to say, the more valuable does
that word or phrase become. Yet it should be remembered that words may
be so specific that they do not include all that the author wishes to
include. For instance, if instead of "Blessed are the peacemakers,"
the beatitude should be made to read "Blessed are the Quakers," though
this organized body of persons labor for the blessings of peace, yet
the meaning would be restricted by the limited denotation of the term.
It does not include enough. So in almost all of Emerson's writing, it
would not be possible to express his entire thought with more specific
words. Therefore regard must always be had for the thought,--that it
may be expressed in its perfect fullness and entirety. Keeping this
full expression in view, those words are strongest, truest, richest,
which suggest most. To say of a person that he is a bad man is one
thing; that he is a traitor is quite another; but when one writes that
he is a veritable Judas, words fail to keep pace with suggestions, and
reason yields to emotion. Specific words, if they denote the whole
idea, are as much better than general terms as their suggestion
exceeds the suggestion of general terms.
Synecdoche, Metonymy.
Much of the force of figures of speech is derived from the suggestive
quality of the specific words employed. When a man calls another a
dog, he has used a metaphor. He has availed himself of a term that
gathers up all the snarling qualities of the worst of the dog species.
The figure has high suggestive power. Synecdoche, too, that figure of
speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part,
employs a term of higher suggestive power for one of lower connoting
force. "All hands took hold" is better than "All persons went to
work." Metonymy is the substitution of the name of one thing for that
of another to which the former bears a known and close relation. The
most common of these known and close relations are those of cause and
its effects, of container and the thing contained, and of sign and the
thing signified. "He has read Shakespeare," "He was addicted to the
use of the bottle," "All patriots fight for the flag," are examples of
metonymy. All these figures depend in large degree for their power
upon the greater suggestiveness of specific words; and their use gives
to composition an efficiency and directness commensurate with the
greater connoting value of the specific words.
Care in Choice of Specific Words.
A writer should keep in mind the fact that the same word may mean
widely different things to two persons. For this reason the specific
word that appeals to him most may be of no value in addressing others.
"Free silver" means to one set of men the withdrawal of money from
investment, consequent stagnation in business, followed by the closing
of factories and penury among laborers. To others it means three
dollars a day for unskilled labor, fire, clothes, and something to
eat. Again, if one wished to present the horrors of devastating
disease, in the South he would mention yellow fever, in the North
smallpox; but to a lady who saw six little brothers and sisters dead
from it in one week, three carried to the graveyard on the hillside
one chill November morning, all the terrors of contagious disease are
suggested by the word "diphtheria." Words are weighted with our
experiences. They are laden with what we have lived into them. As
persons have different experiences, each word carries to each person a
different meaning. The wise writer chooses those specific words which
suggest most to the men he addresses,--in general, to the average man.
There are many words that carry some of the same suggestions to all.
These words are connected with the common things of life: such words
as "home," "death," "mother," and the many more that have been with
all people from childhood. They are simple little words crowded with
experiences. Such words carry a weight of suggestion not found in
strange new words. It is for this reason that simple language goes
straight to the heart; it is so loaded with life. Of two expressions
that convey the thought with equal accuracy, always choose the
simpler.
The following poems--one by Tennyson,[53] steeped in pain, perfect in
its phrasing; the other by Kipling, rising to a conception of a true
artist's work, never before so simply expressed--are both written in
home words, little words, but words all know, words that carry to all
a common meaning:--
"Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean:
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
"Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail
That brings our friends up from the underworld;
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
"Ah! sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
"Dear as remembered kisses after death,
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy feigned
On lips that are for others; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and wild with all regret;
O Death in Life, the days that are no more!"
L'ENVOI.[54]
"When Earth's last picture is painted
and the tubes are twisted and dried,
When the oldest colors have faded,
and the youngest critic has died,
We shall rest, and, faith, we shall need it--
lie down for an æon or two,
Till the Master of All Good Workmen
shall put us to work anew!
"And those that were good shall be happy:
they shall sit in a golden chair;
They shall splash at a ten-league canvas
with brushes of comets' hair;
They shall find real saints to draw from--
Magdalene, Peter, and Paul;
They shall work for an age at a sitting
and never be tired at all!
"And only the Master shall praise us,
and only the Master shall blame;
And no one shall work for money,
and no one shall work for fame;
But each for the joy of the working,
and each, in his separate star,
Shall draw the Thing as he sees It
for the God of Things as They Are!"
Avoid Hackneyed Phrases.
Much like general terms, which mean something or nothing, are
expressions that have become trite and hackneyed. At some time they
were accurate phrases, saying just what was needed. By being used for
all sorts of purposes, they have lost the original thought of which
they were the accurate expression. They have no freshness. The
sounding phrases repeated in the pulpit, or the equally empty phrases
of the scientist, however good they were at their inception, are, in
the writing of many persons, but theological and scientific cant
relied upon by ignorant people to cover up the vacuity of their
thought. One's own expression, even though it be not so elegant and
graceful, is better than any worn-out, hackneyed phrase. Think for
yourself; then say what you have thought in the best language you can
find yourself.
"Fine Writing."
"Fine writing," the subjection of noble words to ignoble service, is
to be avoided. Mr. Micawber was addicted to this pomposity of
language; and Dickens, by the creation of this character, has done
literature a real service, by showing how absurd it is, how valueless
for anything more than humor. "'Under the impression,' said Mr.
Micawber, 'that your peregrinations in this metropolis have not as yet
been extensive, and that you might have some difficulty in penetrating
the arcana of the Modern Babylon in the direction of the City Road--in
short,' said Mr. Micawber, in another burst of confidence, 'that you
might lose yourself--I shall be happy to call this evening, and
install you in the knowledge of the nearest way.'" Here are great
words in profusion to dress out a little thought. "Fine writing" is as
much out of taste as over-dressing. When the thought calls for noble
expression, then all one's energies should be bent to finding noble
phrases; but for common things common expressions are the only ones in
good taste.
In Prose avoid Poetical Words.
Much like "fine writing" is the use of poetical words in prose. _Enow,
erstwhile, besprent, methinks, agone,_ and _thine_ are examples of a
large class of words which, though in perfectly good taste in poetry,
are in extremely poor taste in prose. They are out of place; and so
attract attention to themselves, not to the thought they express. When
writing prose, avoid poetical words.
All of this comes at last to one rule: be exact, be accurate in the
choice of words. Not a word that half expresses the thought, not even
one that is pretty near, but the only word that exactly expresses the
meaning, that word must be used. It is not a question of long or
short, of Latin or Saxon, of general or specific; it is a question of
accuracy or inaccuracy, the whole or a part, the whole or too much, of
just right or about right. No one would entirely misunderstand the
following sentence; and just as certainly no one would derive from
these words the impression the author had when he wrote it. He has
phrased it as follows: "Another direction in which free education is
most valuable to society, is the way in which it removes the gulf
affixed between the rich and poor." The boy wanted the opening
sentence to sound big, and forgot that the first use of words is
accurately to express the thought. In this sentence are the commonest
errors in the choice of words. "Most valuable" says more than truth;
"direction" says less than truth; and "affixed" does not say anything.
Had the boy studied the dictionary, had he been familiar with the
Bible, had he carefully considered the figure he introduced with the
word "gulf," he would not have written this incongruous sentence; he
would not have been inaccurate. Spare no pains in your effort to be
exact. Search through the words of your own vocabulary; if these fall
short, find others in the dictionary. Get the word that exactly
expresses the thought. Let no fine-sounding or high-born word trick
you into saying what you do not mean. Be master of your words; never
let fine expressions enslave you. In a word, be accurate.
Such painstaking labor has its reward not alone in the increased power
of expression; there is also a corresponding growth in the ability to
observe accurately and to think clearly. No man can write such
descriptions as Ruskin and Stevenson have written without seeing
accurately; nor can a man speak with the definite certainty of Burke
without thinking clearly. The desire to be accurate in expression
drives a writer to be accurate in thinking. To think is the highest
that man can hope from education. Anything that contributes to this
highest attainment should be undertaken with joy. Whether planning a
story or constructing an argument; whether excluding irrelevant matter
or including what contributes to the perfection of the whole; whether
massing the material so that all the parts shall receive their due
emphasis; whether relating the parts so that the thought advances
steadily and there can be no misunderstanding,--in all this the
student will find arduous labor. Yet after all this is done,--when the
theme, the paragraphs, and the sentences contain exactly what is
needed, are properly massed, and are set in perfect order,--then comes
the long labor of revision, which does not stop until the exact word
is hunted out. For upon words, at last, we are dependent for the
expression of our observation and thought. He is most entirely master
of his thoughts who can accurately express them: clearly, that he
cannot be misunderstood; forcefully, that he will not be unread; and
elegantly, that he give the reader joy. And this mastery he evinces in
a finely discriminating choice of words.
* * * * *
CHAPTER X
FIGURES OF SPEECH
Figurative Language.
There is a generally accepted division of language into literal and
figurative. Language that is literal uses words in their accepted and
accurate meaning. Figurative language employs words with meanings not
strictly literal, but varying from their ordinary definitions.
Much of our language is figurative. When a person says, "He is a
bright boy," he has used the word "bright" in a sense that is not
literal; the use is figurative. In the following there is hardly a
sentence that has not some variation from literal language.
"Down by the river there is, as yet, little sign of spring.
Its bed is all choked with last year's reeds, trampled about
like a manger. Yet its running seems to have caught a
happier note, and here and there along its banks flash
silvery wands of palm. Right down among the shabby burnt-out
underwood moves the sordid figure of a man. His hat is
battered, and he wears no collar. I don't like staring at
his face, for he has been unfortunate. Yet a glimpse tells
me that he is far down the hill of life, old and
drink-corroded at fifty." (Le Gallienne.)
In the second sentence there are at least three figurative
expressions. "Bed," "choked," and "trampled like a manger" are not
literal. So, too, in the next sentence there are two beautiful
variations from literal expression. Going on through the
selection the reader will find frequently some happy change from
literalness,--sometimes just a word, sometimes a phrase.
Figurative language is of great value. It adds clearness to our
speech; it gives it more force; or it imparts to literature beauty.
The last use is the most common; indeed, it is so common that
sometimes the other uses are overlooked. However, when such a sentence
as the following is read, the comparison is of value in giving
_clearness_ to the thought, although it does not state the literal
truth.
"In the early history of our planet, the moon was flung off
into space, as mud is thrown from a turning wagon wheel."
_Force_ is often gained by the use of figurative language. The
following is a good illustration:--
"Neither the perseverance of Holland, nor the activity of
France, nor the dextrous and firm sagacity of English
enterprise, ever carried this most perilous mode of hardy
industry to the extent to which it has been pushed by these
people [Americans]; a people who are still, as it were, but
in the gristle, and not yet hardened into the bone of
manhood."
The next is an illustration of a figure used for _beauty:--_
"Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven,
Having some business, do entreat her eyes
To twinkle in their spheres till they return."
_A figure of speech is any use of words with a sense varying from
their literal definition, to secure clearness, force, or beauty of
expression._
Figures add so much to the attractiveness of literature, that every
one would like to use them. Yet figures should never be sought for.
When they come of themselves, when they insist on being used, and are
a part of the thought itself, and seem to be its only adequate
expression, then they should be used. In most cases figures are
ornaments of literature; it must be remembered that ornament is always
secondary, and that no ornament is good unless it is in entire harmony
with the thing it is to beautify. (See Preface, p. viii.)
When a figure suggests itself, it must be so clearly seen that there
can be no mixing of images. Some people are determined to use figures,
and they force them into every possible place. The result is that
there is often a confusion of comparisons. The following is bad: "His
name went resounding in golden letters through the corridors of time."
Just how a name could resound "in golden letters" is a difficult
question. Longfellow used the last phrase beautifully:--
"Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of time."
Of the two hundred or more figures of speech which have been named and
defined, only a few need be mentioned here. And the purpose is not
that you shall use them more, but that you may recognize them when you
meet them in literature.
Figures based upon Likeness.
There is a large group of figures of speech based upon likeness. One
thing is so much like another that it is spoken of as like it, or,
more frequently, one is said to be the other. Yet if the things
compared are very much alike, there is no figure. To say that a cat is
like a panther is not considered figurative. It is when in objects
essentially different we detect and name some likeness that we say
there is a figure of speech. There is at first thought no likeness
between hope and a nurse; yet were it not for hope most persons would
die. Thackeray was right when he said that "Hope is the nurse of
life."
The principal figures based upon likeness are metaphor, epithet,
personification, apostrophe, allegory, and simile.
_A metaphor is an implied comparison between things essentially
different, but having some common quality._ Metaphor is by far the
most common figure of speech; indeed, so common is it that figurative
language is often called metaphorical.
"Tombs are the clothes of the dead; a grave is but a plain
suit, and a rich monument is one embroidered."
"Let me choose;
For as I am, I live upon the rack."
"The cataracts blow their trumpets from the steep."
Only a little removed from metaphor is epithet. _An epithet is a word,
generally a descriptive adjective or a noun, used, not to give
information, but to impart strength or ornament to diction._ It is
like a shortened metaphor. It is very often found in impassioned prose
or verse. Notice that in each epithet there is a comparison; that the
figure is based on likeness.
"Here are sever'd lips
Parted with _sugar_ breath."
"Base _dog!_ why shouldst thou stand here?"
_Personification is a figure that ascribes to inanimate things,
abstract ideas, and the lower animals the attributes of human beings._
It is plain that there must be some resemblance of the lower to the
higher, else this figure could not be used. Personification, like the
epithet, is a modification of the metaphor. Indeed, in every
personification there is also a metaphor.
"When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees
And they did make no noise."
"But ever heaves and moans the restless Deep."
_Apostrophe is an address to the dead as if living; to abstract ideas
or inanimate objects as if they were persons._ It is a variety of
personification.
"O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!"
"Wee, modest, crimson-tippèd flower,
Thou's met me in an evil hour;
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem."
"Milton! thou shouldst be living at this hour."
_Allegory is a narrative in which material things and circumstances
are used to illustrate and enforce high spiritual truths._ It is a
continued personification. Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress" and Spenser's
"Faerie Queene" are good examples of allegory.
All these figures are varieties of metaphor. In them there is always
an implied, not an expressed, comparison.
_A simile is an expressed comparison between unlike things that have
some common quality._ This comparison is usually indicated by _like_
or _as._
"Ilbrahim was like a domesticated sunbeam, brightening moody
countenances, and chasing away the gloom from the dark
corners of the cottage."
(Does this figure change to another in its course?)
"How far that little candle throws its beams!
So shines a good deed in a naughty world."
Of retired Dutch valleys, Irving wrote:--
"They are like those little nooks of still water which
border a rapid stream; where we may see the straw and bubble
riding quietly at anchor, or slowly revolving in their mimic
harbor, undisturbed by the rush of the passing current."
Figures based upon Sentence Structure.
There are a number of figures that express emotion by simply changing
the normal order of the sentence. Among these are inversion,
exclamation, interrogation, climax, and irony.
_Inversion is a figure intended to give emphasis to the thought by a
change from the natural order of the words in a sentence._
"_Thine_ be the glory!"
"_Few_ were the words they said."
"He saved others; _himself_ he cannot save."
_Exclamation is an expression of strong emotion in abrupt, inverted,
or elliptical phrases._ It is among sentences what the interjection is
among words.
"How far that little candle throws its beams!"
"Oh, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!"
_Interrogation is a figure in which a question is asked, not to get an
answer, but for the sake of emphasis._
"Do men gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?"
"Fear ye foes who kill for hire?
Will ye to your homes retire?"
"Am I a coward?"
_Climax is a figure in which the intensity of the thought and emotion
gradually increases with the successive groups of words or phrases._
(See p. 211.)
"Your children do not grow faster from infancy to manhood
than they [the American colonists] spread from families to
communities, from villages to nations."
_Irony is a figure in which one thing is said and the opposite is
meant._
"And Job answered and said, No doubt but ye are the people,
and wisdom shall die with you."
"O Jew, an upright judge, a learned judge!"
Four other figures should be mentioned: metonymy, synecdoche,
allusion, and hyperbole.
_Metonymy calls one thing by the name of another which is closely
related to the first._ The most common relations are cause and effect,
container and thing contained, and sign and the thing signified.
"From the cradle to the grave is but a day."
"I did dream of money-bags to-night."
_Synecdoche is that figure of speech in which a part is put for the
whole, or the whole for a part._
"Fifty sail came into harbor."
"The redcoats are marching."
_Allusion is a reference to something in history or literature with
which every one is supposed to be acquainted._
"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel!"
Men still sigh for the flesh pots of Egypt; still worship
the golden calf.
There is no "Open Sesame" to the treasures of learning; they
must be acquired by hard study.
Milton and Shakespeare are full of allusions to the classic literature
of Greece and Rome.
_Hyperbole is an exaggerated statement made for effect._
"He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders,
long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his
sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his
whole frame most loosely hung together."
"And, if thou prate of mountains, let them throw
Millions of acres on us, till our ground,
Singeing his pate against the burning zone,
Make Ossa like a wart!"
Exercises in Figures.
Name the following figures. Of those that are based upon likeness,
tell in what the similarity consists. In many of the selections more
than one figure will be found.[55]
1. "The long, hard winter of his youth had ended; the
spring-time of his manhood was turning green like the
woods."
2. A pig came up to a horse and said, "Your feet are
crooked, and your hair is worth nothing."
3. "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but
war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, but
they were drawn swords."
4. "The lily maid of Astolat."
5. "O Truth! O Freedom! how are ye still born
In the rude stable, in the manger nursed!"
6. "The birch, most shy and ladylike of trees,
Her poverty, as best she may, retrieves,
And hints at her foregone gentilities
With some saved relics of her wealth of leaves."
7. "O friend, never strike sail to a fear! Come into port
grandly, or sail with God the seas!"
8. "Primroses smile and daisies cannot frown."
9. "How deeply and warmly and spotlessly Earth's nakedness
is clothed!--the 'wool' of the Psalmist nearly two feet
deep. And as far as warmth and protection are concerned,
there is a good deal of the virtue of wool in such a
snow-fall. It is a veritable fleece, beneath which the
shivering earth ('the frozen hills ached with pain,' says
one of our young poets) is restored to warmth."
10. "We can win no laurels in a war for independence.
Earlier and worthier hands have gathered them all. Nor are
there places for us by the side of Solon and Alfred and
other founders of States. Our fathers have filled them."
11. "I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my
judgment was as a robe and diadem.
"I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame.
"I was father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I
searched out.
"And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil
out of his teeth."
12. "His head and his heart were so well combined that he
could not avoid becoming a power in his community."
Spenser, writing of honor, says:--
13. "In woods, in waves, in wars, she wonts to dwell,
And will be found with peril and with pain;
Nor can the man that moulds an idle cell
Unto her happy mansion attain:
Before her gate high God did Sweat ordain,
And wakeful watches ever to abide;
But easy is the way and passage plain
To pleasure's palace: it may soon be spied,
And day and night her doors to all stand open wide."
14. "Over the vast green sea of the wilderness, the moon
swung her silvery lamp."
15. "The peace of the golden sunshine was supreme. Even a
tiny cloudlet anchored in the limitless sky would not sail
to-day."
16. "A short way further along, I come across a boy
gathering palm. He is a town boy, and has come all the way
from Whitechapel thus early. He has already gathered a great
bundle--worth five shillings to him, he says. This same palm
will to-morrow be distributed over London, and those who buy
sprigs of it by the Bank will know nothing of the blue-eyed
boy who gathered it, and the murmuring river by which it
grew. And the lad, once more lost in some squalid court,
will be a sort of Sir John Mandeville to his companions--a
Sir John Mandeville of the fields, with their water-rats,
their birds' eggs, and many other wonders. And one can
imagine him saying, 'And the sparrows there fly right up
into the sun, and sing like angels.' But he won't get his
comrades to believe _that._"
17. "We wandered to the Pine Forest
That skirts the Ocean's foam;
The lightest wind was in its nest,
The tempest in its home.
The whispering waves were half asleep,
The clouds were gone to play,
And on the bosom of the deep
The smile of heaven lay;
It seemed as if the hour were one
Sent from beyond the skies
Which scattered from above the sun
The light of Paradise.
"We paused amid the pines that stood
The giants of the waste,
Tortured by storms to shapes as rude
As serpents interlaced,--
And soothed by every azure breath
That under heaven is blown,
To harmonies and hues beneath,
As tender as its own:
Now all the tree-tops lay asleep
Like green waves on the sea,
As still as in the silent deep
The ocean woods may be."
18. "When a bee brings pollen into the hive, he advances to
the cell in which it is to be deposited and kicks it off as
one might his overalls or rubber boots, making one foot help
the other; then he walks off without ever looking behind
him; another bee, one of the indoor hands, comes along and
rams it down with his head and packs it in the cell as the
dairy-maid packs butter into a firkin."
19. "For thy desires
Are wolfish, bloody, starved, and ravenous."
20. "What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how
infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and
admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how
like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of
animals!"
21. "And in her cheeks the vermeil red did shew
Like roses in a bed of lilies shed."
22. He betrayed his friend with a Judas kiss.
23. "A true poet is not one whom they can hire by money and
flattery to be a minister of their pleasures, their writer
of occasional verses, their purveyor of table wit; he cannot
be their menial, he cannot even be their partisan. At the
peril of both parties let no such union be attempted. Will a
Courser of the Sun work softly in the harness of a
Dray-horse? His hoofs are of fire, and his path is through
the heavens, bringing light to all lands; will he lumber on
mud highways, dragging ale for earthly appetites from door
to door?"
24. "Hath a dog money? is it possible
A cur can lend three thousand ducats?"
25. "Kind hearts are more than coronets,
And simple faith than Norman blood."
26. They sleep together,--the gray and the blue.
27. "Have not the Indians been kindly and justly treated?
Have not the temporal things--the vain baubles and filthy
lucre of this world--which were apt to engage their worldly
and selfish thoughts, been benevolently taken from them? And
have they not, instead thereof, been taught to set their
affections on things above?" (Quoted from Meiklejohn's "The
Art of Writing English.")
28. "Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes."
29. "His words were shed softer than leaves from the pine,
And they fell on Sir Launfal as snows on the brine,
That mingle their softness and quiet in one
With the shaggy unrest they float down upon."
30. Too much red tape caused a great amount of suffering in
the beginning of the war.
31. "Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll!
Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain."
32. "The old Mountain has thrown a stone at us for fear we
should forget him. He sometimes nods his head, and threatens
to come down."
33. "But pleasures are like poppies spread:
You seize the flow'r, its bloom is shed;
Or like the snow falls in the river,
A moment white--then melts for ever;
Or like the borealis race,
That flit ere you can point their place;
Or like the rainbow's lovely form
Evanishing amid the storm."
* * * * *
CHAPTER XI
VERSE FORMS[56]
Preparer's note: In this chapter, the rhythms of the sample
poetry lines were indicated with musical notes and rests.
In this text version, an eighth note is indicated by e, a
quarter note by q, and an eighth rest by r.
No pupil has passed through the graded schools without being told that
he should not sing verses, though no one is inclined to sing prose.
One can scarcely help singing verse, and one cannot well sing prose.
What is there about the form that leads a person to sing verses of
poetry? For example, when a person reads the first lines of "The Lady
of the Lake," he falls naturally into a sing-song which can be
represented by musical notation as follows:--
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e q | e q | e q | e q |
"The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e q | e q | e q | e q |
Where danced the moon on Mon an's rill,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e q | e q | e q | e q |
And deep his mid night lair had made
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e q | e q | e q | e q |
In lone Glenart ney's ha zel shade."
The second, fourth, sixth, and eighth syllables in each of these lines
are naturally accented in reading, while the other syllables are read
without stress. The eight syllables of each line fall naturally into
groups of two, an unaccented syllable followed by an accented
syllable, just as in the musical notation given, an unaccented eighth
note is followed by an accented quarter.
In "Hiawatha" the accented syllable comes first, and the unaccented
follows it.
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q e |
"By the shores of Gitchee Gumee,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q e |
By the shining Big-Sea-Water,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q e |
Stood the wigwam of No komis,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q e |
Daughter of the Moon, No komis."
So, too, there are groups in which there are three syllables. The
accent may fall on any one of the three. In the following stanza from
"The Bridge of Sighs," the accent falls on the first syllable of each
group.
| ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |
"Touch her not scornfully;
| ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |
Think of her mournfully,
| ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |
Gently and humanly,
| ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |
Not of the stains of her;
| ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |
All that re mains of her
| ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |
Now is pure womanly."
The accent may be upon the second syllable of the group. This is not
common. The following is from "The Three Fishers."
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e | e e e | e q |
"Three fishers went sailing out into the West,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e | e q | e q |
Out into the West as the sun went down;
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e | e e e | e q |
Each thought on the woman that loved him the best;
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| [e] e e e | e e e | e e e | e q |
[And] the children stood watching them out of the town."
Or the accent may be upon the last syllable of the group. This form is
very common. It is found in the poem entitled "Annabel Lee."
| ^ | ^ | ^ ^| |
| e e e |e e e |e e e |e q |
"It was man y and man y a year ago,
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e q | e q |
In a king dom by the sea,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e |e e e | e q | e q |
That a maid en there lived whom you may know
| ^ | ^| ^ |
| e e e | e q| e e e |
By the name of An nabel Lee;
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e |e e e | e q | e e e |
And this maid en she lived with no other thought
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |e q |
Than to love and be loved by me."
Poetic Feet.
If all these verses be observed carefully, it will be seen that in
each group of syllables there is one accented syllable combined with
one or two unaccented. Such a group of syllables is called a foot. The
foot is the basis of the verse; and from the prevailing kind of foot
that is found in any verse, the verse derives its name.
_A foot is a group of syllables composed of one accented syllable
combined with one or more unaccented._ It will be noticed further that
if musical notation be used, all of these forms are but variations of
the one form, represented by the standard measure 3/8. They are:--
| ^ | | ^ | | ^ | | ^ | | ^ |
| e q |; | q e |; | e e e |; | e e e |; and | e e e |.
Accordingly there are five forms of poetic feet made of this musical
rhythm. Of these, four are in common use.
_An Iambus is a two-syllable foot accented on the last syllable. Verse
made of this kind of feet is called iambic._ It is the most common
form found in English poetry. Example:--
"The stag at eve had drunk his fill."
_A Trochee is a two-syllable foot accented on the first syllable.
Verse made of this kind of feet is called trochaic._ Example:--
"Stood the wigwam of Nokomis."
_A Dactyl is a three-syllable foot accented on the first syllable.
Such verse is called dactylic._ Example:--
"Touch her not scornfully."
_An Amphibrach is a three-syllable foot accented on the middle
syllable._ It is uncommon. Example:--
"Three fishers went sailing out into the West."
_An Anapest is a three-syllable foot accented on the last syllable._
Example:--
"It was many and many a year ago."
A Spondee is a very uncommon foot in English. It consists of two long
syllables accented about equally. It occurs as an occasional foot in a
four-syllable rhythm. No English poem is entirely spondaic. The
four-syllable foot and the spondee are so uncommon that there is
little use in the pupil's knowing more than that there are such
things. The example below is quoted from Lanier's "The Science of
English Verse."
| ^ | ^ | ^ ^ |
| e e e e | q e e | q q |
"Ah, the autumn days fade out, and the nights grow chill
| ^ | ^ | ^ ^ |
| e e e e | e e e e | q q |
And we walk no more to gether as we used of yore
When the rose was new in blossom and the sun was on the hill,
And the eves were sweetly vocal with the happy whippoorwill,
And the land-breeze piped its sweetest by the ocean shore."
Kinds of Metre.
_A verse is a single line of poetry._ It may contain from one foot to
eight feet.
_A line made of one foot is called monometer._ It is never used
throughout a poem, except as a joke, but it sometimes occurs as an
occasional verse in a poem that is made of longer lines. The two lines
which follow are from the song of "Winter" in Shakespeare's "Love's
Labour's Lost." The last is monometer.
"Then nightly sings the staring owl
Tu-whit."
_A line containing two feet is called dimeter._ It also is uncommon;
but it does sometimes make up a whole poem; as, "The Bridge of Sighs,"
already mentioned. Another example is:--
^ ^
"I'm wearing awa', Jean,
^ ^
Like snaw when it's thaw, Jean,
^ ^
I'm wearing awa'
^ ^
To the land o' the leal."
It is frequently met as an occasional line in a poem. Wordsworth's
"Daisy" shows it.
"Bright _Flower!_ for by that name at last,
When all my reveries are past,
I call thee, and to that cleave fast,
Sweet, silent creature!
That breath'st with me in sun and air,
Do thou, as thou art wont, repair
My heart with gladness, and a share
Of thy meek nature!"
_A line containing three feet is called trimeter._ Example:--
^ ^ ^
"The snow had begun in the gloaming,
^ ^ ^
And busily all the night
^ ^ ^
Had been heaping field and highway
^ ^ ^
With a silence deep and white."
_A line containing four feet is called tetrameter._ "Marmion" is
written in tetrameters. See the extract on p. 276.
_A line containing five feet is called pentameter._ This line is very
common in English poetry. It gives room enough for the poet to say
something, and is not so long that it breaks down with its own weight.
Shakespeare's Plays, Milton's "Paradise Lost," Tennyson's "Idylls of
the King,"--indeed, most of the great, serious work of the
master-poets has been done in this verse.
_A line containing six feet is called hexameter._ This is the form
adopted in the Iliad and the Odyssey of the Greeks, and the Æneid of
the Romans; it has been used sometimes by English writers in treating
dignified subjects. "The Courtship of Miles Standish" and "Evangeline"
are written in hexameter.
Verses of seven and eight feet are rare; they are called heptameter
and octameter, respectively. The heptameter is usually divided into a
tetrameter and a trimeter; the octameter, into two tetrameters. Poe's
"Raven" and Tennyson's "Locksley Hall" are in octameters, and Bryant's
"The Death of the Flowers" is in heptameters.
A verse is named from its prevailing kind of foot and the number of
feet. For example, "The Merchant of Venice" is in iambic pentameter,
and "The Courtship of Miles Standish" is in dactylic hexameter.
Stanzas.
A stanza is a group of verses, but these verses are not necessarily of
the same length. Monometer, dimeter, and trimeter are not often used
for a whole stanza; but they are frequently found in a stanza,
introducing variety into it. A stanza made up of tetrameter
alternating with trimeter is very common. The stanzas from "Annabel
Lee" and "The Village Blacksmith," found on pages 278 and 279, are
excellent examples.
Scansion.
_Scansion is the separation of a verse of poetry into its component
feet._ Poetry was originally sung or chanted by bards and troubadours.
The accompaniment was a simple strumming on a harp of very few
strings, and was hardly more than the beating of time. The chanting
must have been much like the sing-song that some people fall into when
reading verses now. The first thing in scanning a line of poetry is to
drop into its rhythm,--to let it sing itself. When the regular accent
is felt, the lines can easily be separated into their metrical feet.
Read these lines from "Marmion," and mark only the accented syllables.
^ ^ ^ ^
"And there she stood so calm and pale,
^ ^ ^ ^
That but her breathing did not fail,
And motion slight of eyes and head,
And of her bosom, warranted
That neither sense nor pulse she lacks,
You might have thought a form of wax
Wrought to the very life was there;
So still she was, so pale, so fair."
The marked verses have an accented syllable preceded by an unaccented
syllable. Such a foot is iambic. There are four feet in each verse; so
the poem is written in iambic tetrameter. In the same way, one decides
that "The Song of Hiawatha" is written in trochaic tetrameter.
Variations in Metres.
In music the bar or measure is not always filled with exactly the same
kind of notes arranged in the same order. If the signature reads 3/8,
the measure may be filled by any notes that added together equal three
eighth notes. It may be a quarter and an eighth, an eighth and a
quarter, a dotted quarter, or three eighth notes. So, in poetry the
verses are not always as regular as in "Marmion" and "Hiawatha,"
although poetry is more regular than music and there are usually few
variations of metre in any one poem. A knowledge of the most common
forms of variation is necessary to correct scansion.
The commonest variation in verse is the substitution of three eighths
for the quarter and the eighth, or the eighth and the quarter. And the
very opposite of this often occurs; that is, the substitution of the
two-syllable foot for the three-syllable foot. The following, from
"The Burial of Sir John Moore," illustrates what is done. Notice,
however, that the beat is quite regular, and the lines lilt along as
if there were no change.
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^
| e e e | e q | e e e |e e e |
"Not a drum was heard, not a fun eral note,
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e | e e e [e] |
As his corse to the ram part we hur[ried];
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e | e q | e q |
Not a sol dier discharged his fare well shot
| ^ | ^| ^ |
| e e e | e e e| e e e [e] |
O'er the grave where our he ro we bur[ied]."
In reading this the first time, a person is not likely to notice that
there are three feet in it containing but two syllables. The rhythm is
perfectly smooth, and cannot be called irregular. The accent remains
on the last syllable of the foot.
In the following selection from "Evangeline," trochees are substituted
for dactyls, yet there is no break in the rhythm. It does not seem in
the least irregular.
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | e e e | q e |
"Be hind them followed the watch-dog,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^
| q e | e e e| e e e | e e e | e e e | q e |
Patient, full of im portance, and grand in the pride of his instinct,
Walking from side to side with a lordly air, and superbly
Waving his bushy tail, and urging forward the stragglers."
These examples are enough to illustrate the fact that one kind of foot
may be substituted for another and not make the rhythm feel irregular.
So long as the accent is not changed from the first syllable to the
last, or from the last to the first, there is no jar in the flow of
the lines. _The trochee and the dactyl are interchangeable; and the
iambus and the anapest are interchangeable._
We may take a step further. There are many times when some sudden
change of thought, some strong emotion forces a poet to break the
smooth rhythm, that the verses may harmonize with his feeling. Such a
variation is like an exclamation or a dash thrown into prose. The
following is taken from "Annabel Lee." The regular foot has the accent
on the last syllable. It is anapestic, in tetrameters and trimeters.
But note the shudder in the third line when the accent is changed on
the word "chilling." The music and the thought are in perfect harmony.
"And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
|e q | e q |e e e | q e |
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea."
Another beautiful example is found in the last stanza of the same
poem. It is in the first two feet of the fifth line. Here the regular
accent has yielded to an accent on the middle syllable and there are
two amphibrachs. Notice, too, how it is almost impossible to tell in
the next foot whether the accent goes upon the second or upon the
third syllable. It is hovering between the form of the first two feet
and the anapest of the last foot.
"For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
| ^ | ^ | ^ ^ | ^ |
| e e e | e e e |e e e | e e e |
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling--my darling--my life and my bride,
In her sepulchre there by the sea
In her tomb by the sounding sea."
As has already been said, the iambus is the common foot of English
verse. It is made of a short and a long syllable. At the beginning of
a poem an unaccented syllable seems weak; and so very frequently the
first foot of a poem is trochaic; often the first two or three feet
are of this kind. At such a place the irregularity does not strike
one. The following is an illustration:--
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e |e q | e q | e q |
"Under a spread ing chest nut tree
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| e q | e q |e q |
The vil lage smith y stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands."
In this stanza the prevailing foot is iambic, but the first foot is
trochaic. In the following beautiful lines by Ben Jonson, there is the
same thing:--
| ^ | ^| ^ | ^ |
| q e |e q|e q | e q |
"Drink to me on ly with thine eyes
And I will pledge with mine;
Or leave a kiss but in the cup
And I'll not look for wine.
The thirst that from the soul doth rise
Doth ask a drink divine;
But might I of Jove's nectar sup,
I would not change for thine."
A similar substitution may occur in any other verse of the stanza; but
we feel the change more than when it is found in the first verse. The
second stanza of Jonson's song furnishes an example of the
substitution of a trochee for an iambus:--
"I sent thee late a rosy wreath,
| ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | e q |e e e |
Not so much hon oring thee
As giving it a hope that there
It could not withered be,
But thou thereon didst only breathe
And sent'st it back to me;
Since when it grows and smells, I swear,
Not of itself, but thee."
Of all the great poets, but few have been such masters of the art of
making musical verse as Spenser. The following stanza is from "The
Faerie Queene;" and the delicate changes from one foot to another are
so skillfully made that one has to look twice before he finds them.
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
"A little lowly hermitage it was,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Down in a dale, hard by a forest's side,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Far from resort of people that did pass
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
In travel to and fro; a little wide
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
There was a holy chapel edified,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Wherein a hermit duly wont to say
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
His holy things each morn and eventide;
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Thereby a crystal stream did gently play,
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
Which from a sacred fountain welléd forth alway."
First and Last Foot.
From the lines on "The Burial of Sir John Moore," another fact about
metres may be derived. The second and fourth lines apparently have one
too many syllables. _This may occur when the accent is upon the last
syllable of the foot;_ that is, when the foot is an iambus or an
anapest.
Again, the last foot of each line may be one syllable short. _This may
occur when the accent is on the first syllable of a foot;_ that is,
when the foot is trochaic or dactylic. The scheme is like this:
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q e |
"Tell me not in mournful numbers
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | q e | q r |
Life is but an empty dream."
The last foot of a verse of poetry, then, may have more or fewer
syllables than the regular number; still the foot takes up the regular
time and cannot be deemed unrhythmical.
The first foot of a line, too, may contain an extra syllable; a good
example has been given in the lines on page 273, beginning,--
"Ah, the autumn days fade out, and the nights grow chill."
And the first foot of a line may lack a syllable, as in the first line
of "Break, Break, Break," by Tennyson.
In a line like the following, it is sometimes difficult to tell
whether the syllable is omitted from the first or the last foot. If
from the first, the verse is iambic, and is scanned like this:--
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| r q | e q |e q | e e e |
"Proud and low ly, beg gar and lord."
If the last foot is not full, the line is trochaic.
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
| q e | q e | e e e | q r |
"Proud and low ly, beg gar and lord."
Now if the whole of "London Bridge," from which this line is quoted,
be read, there will be found several lines that are trochaic beyond
question; and the last line of the chorus is iambic. The majority of
trochaic lines leads us to decide that the verse is trochaic. From
this example one learns to appreciate how nearly alike are trochaic
and iambic verses. Both are composed of alternating accented and
unaccented syllables; and the kind of metre depends upon which comes
first in the foot. In Blake's "Tiger, Tiger," there is not a line that
clearly shows what kind of verse the poet used. If the unaccented
syllable is supplied at the beginning the poem is iambic; if at the
end, it is trochaic.
"Tiger, Tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Framed thy fearful symmetry?"
Silences may occur in the middle of a verse of poetry as well as at
the beginning or the end. In the following nursery rhyme it is clear
that the prevailing foot is anapestic, though several feet are iambic,
and in the first two lines and the last line a single syllable makes a
foot. Silences are introduced here as rests are in music.
| r q | r q | r q |
"Three blind mice!
| r q | r q | e q |
See how they run!
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
Hurrah, hurrah for the farm er's wife!
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
She cut off their tails with a carv ing knife!
| ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ |
Did you ev er see such a sight in your life
|e q | r q | r q |
As three blind mice!"
Like this is the scansion of Tennyson's "Break, Break, Break."
| r q | r q | r q |
"Break, break, break!
On thy cold gray stones, O sea!
And I would that my tongue could utter
The thoughts that arise in me."
In scanning, then, it is necessary--
_First._ To determine by reading a number of verses the kind of foot
that predominates, and to make this the basis of the metrical scheme.
_Second._ To remember that one kind of foot may be substituted for
another, at the will of the poet, introducing into the poem a delicate
variety of rhythm.
_Third._ To keep in mind that the first foot of a verse and the last
foot may have more or fewer syllables than the regular foot of the
poem.
_Fourth._ That silences, like rests in music, may be introduced into a
verse and give to it a perfect smoothness of rhythm.
Kinds of Poetry.
It is a difficult thing to give a definition of poetry. Many have done
so, yet no one has been fortunate enough to have his definition go
without criticism. In general, it may be said that poetry deals with
serious subjects, that it appeals to the feelings rather than to the
reason, that it employs beautiful language, and that it is written in
some metrical form.
Poetry has been divided into three great classes: narrative, lyric,
and dramatic.
Narrative poetry deals with events, real or imaginary. It includes,
among other varieties, the epic, the metrical romance, the tale, and
the ballad.
_The epic is a narrative poem of elevated character telling generally
of the exploits of heroes._ The "Iliad" of the Greeks, the "Æneid" of
the Romans, the "Nibelungen Lied" of the Germans, "Beowulf" of the
Anglo-Saxons, and "Paradise Lost" are good examples of the epic.
_The metrical romance is any fictitious narrative of heroic,
marvelous, or supernatural incidents derived from history or legend,
and told at considerable length._ "The Idylls of the King" are
romances.
The tale is but little different from the romance. It leaves the field
of legend and occupies the place in poetry that a story or a novel
does in prose. "Marmion" and "Enoch Arden" are tales.
_A ballad is a short narrative poem, generally rehearsing but one
incident._ It is usually vigorous in style, and gives but little
thought to elegance. "Sir Patrick Spens," "The Battle of Otterburne,"
and "Chevy Chase" are examples.
Lyric poetry finds its source in the author's feelings and emotions.
In this it differs from narrative poems, which find their material in
external events and circumstances. Epic poetry is written in a grand
style, generally in pentameter, or hexameter; while the lyric adopts
any verse that suits the emotion. The principal classes of lyric
poetry are the song, the ode, the elegy, and the sonnet.
_The song is a short poem intended to be sung._ It has great variety
of metres and is generally divided into stanzas. "Sweet and Low," "Ye
Banks and Braes o' Bonnie Doon," "John Anderson, My Jo, John," are
songs.
_An ode is a lyric expressing exalted emotion; it usually has a
complex and irregular metrical form._ Collins's "The Passions,"
Wordsworth's "Intimations of Immortality," and Lowell's "Commemoration
Ode," are well known.
_An elegy is a serious poem pervaded by a feeling of melancholy._ It
is generally written to commemorate the death of some friend. Milton's
"Lycidas" and Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" are examples of
this form of lyric.
_A sonnet is a lyric that deals with a single thought, idea, or
sentiment in a fixed metrical form. The sonnet always contains
fourteen lines._ It has, too, a very definite rhyme scheme. Some of
the best English sonnets have been written by Shakespeare, Wordsworth,
and Mrs. Browning.
Dramatic poetry presents a course of human events, and is generally
designed to be spoken on the stage. Because such poetry presents human
character in action, the term "dramatic" has come to be applied to any
poetry having this quality. Many of Browning's poems are dramatic in
this sense. In the first sense of the word, dramatic poetry includes
tragedy and comedy.
_Tragedy is a drama in which the diction is dignified, the movement
impressive, and the ending unhappy._
_Comedy is a drama of a light and amusing character, with a happy
conclusion to its plot._
Exercises in Metres.
Enough of each poem is given below so that the kind of metre can be
determined. Always name the verse form and write the verse scheme.
Some hard work will be necessary to work out the irregular lines, but
it is only by work on these that any ability in scanning can be
gained. Always read a stanza two or three times to get the swing of
the rhythm. Remember the silences, and the substitutions that may be
made.
1. "I stood on the bridge at midnight
As the clocks were striking the hour,
And the moon rose over the city,
Behind the dark church tower.
"Among the long black rafters
The wavering shadows lay,
And the current that came from the ocean
Seemed to lift and bear them away."
2. "All things are new;--the buds, the leaves,
That gild the elm-tree's nodding crest,
And even the nest beneath the eaves;--
There are no birds in last year's nest!"
3. "Meanwhile we did our nightly chores,--
Brought in the wood from out of doors,
Littered the stalls, and from the mows
Raked down the herd's-grass for the cows;
Heard the horse whinnying for his corn;
And, sharply clashing horn on horn,
Impatient down the stanchion rows
The cattle shake their walnut bows;
While, peering from his early perch
Upon the scaffold's pole of birch,
The cock his crested helmet bent
And down his querulous challenge sent."
4. "You know, we French stormed Ratisbon:
A mile or so away,
On a little mound, Napoleon
Stood on our storming day;
With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,
Legs wide, arms locked behind,
As if to balance the prone brow
Oppressive with its mind."
5. "Come, read to me some poem,
Some simple and heartfelt lay,
That shall soothe this restless feeling,
And banish the thoughts of day.
"Not from the grand old masters,
Not from the bards sublime,
Whose distant footsteps echo
Through the corridors of Time.
"For, like strains of martial music,
Their mighty thoughts suggest
Life's endless toil and endeavor;
And to-night I long for rest.
"Read from some humbler poet
Whose songs gushed from his heart,
As showers from the clouds of summer,
Or tears from the eyelids start;
"Who through long days of labor,
And nights devoid of ease,
Still heard in his soul the music
Of the wonderful melodies."
6. "Hickory, dickery, dock,
The mouse ran up the clock;
The clock struck one,
And the mouse ran down;
Hickory, dickery, dock."
7. "Two brothers had the maiden, and she thought,
Within herself: 'I would I were like them;
For then I might go forth alone, to trace
The mighty rivers downward to the sea,
And upward to the brooks that, through the year,
Prattle to the cool valleys. I would know
What races drink their waters; how their chiefs
Bear rule, and how men worship there, and how
They build, and to what quaint device they frame,
Where sea and river meet, their stately ships;
What flowers are in their gardens, and what trees
Bear fruit within their orchards; in what garb
Their bowmen meet on holidays, and how
Their maidens bind the waist and braid the hair.'"
(In this quotation we have blank verse; that is, verse that does not
rhyme. It is iambic pentameter,--the most common verse in great
English poetry. What poems are you familiar with that use this
verse-form?)
8. "A wet sheet and a flowing sea,
A wind that follows fast
And fills the rustling sails
And bends the gallant mast;
And bends the gallant mast, my boys,
While like the eagle free
Away the good ship flies, and leaves
Old England on the lee.
"O for a soft and gentle wind;
I heard a fair one cry;
But give to me the snoring breeze
And white waves heaving high;
And white waves heaving high, my lads,
The good ship tight and free--
The world of waters is our home,
And merry men are we.
"There's tempest in yon horned moon,
And lightning in yon cloud;
But hark the music, mariners!
The wind is piping loud;
The wind is piping loud, my boys,
The lightning flashes free--
While the hollow oak our palace is,
Our heritage the sea."
9. "Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door--
''T is some visitor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door--
Only this, and nothing more.'"
10. "Somewhat back from the village street
Stands the old-fashioned country-seat,
Across its antique portico
Tall poplar trees their shadows throw;
And from its station in the hall
An ancient timepiece says to all,--
'Forever--never!
Never--forever!'"
11. "Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in seventy-five;
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year."
12. "Sweet and low, sweet and low,
Wind of the western sea,
Low, low, breathe and blow,
Wind of the western sea!
Over the rolling waters go,
Come from the dying moon, and blow,
Blow him again to me;
While my little one, while my pretty one, sleeps.
"Sleep and rest, sleep and rest,
Father will come to thee soon;
Rest, rest, on mother's breast,
Father will come to thee soon;
Father will come to his babe in the nest--
Silver sails all out of the west
Under the silver moon:
Sleep, my little one, sleep, my pretty one, sleep."
13. "See what a lovely shell,
Small and pure as a pearl,
Lying close to my foot,
Frail, but a work divine,
Made so fairily well
With delicate spire and whorl,
How exquisitely minute,
A miracle of design!"
(If the pupils have Palgrave's "Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,"
they have a great fund of excellent material illustrating all
varieties of metrical variation. There are very few pieces of
literature that illustrate so many varieties of metre as Wordsworth's
"Ode on the Intimations of Immortality.")
* * * * *
APPENDIX
A. SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS.
The Course of Study on pages xx-xxvi contemplates five days a week for
the study of English. The text which is to be the subject of the
term's work should first be studied for a few weeks. After it has been
mastered, three days of each week should be given to literature and
two to composition. In practice I have found it best to have the study
of literature occupy three consecutive days,--for example, Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday. This arrangement leaves Monday and Friday for
composition. Friday is used for the study of the text-book and for
general criticism and suggestion. On Monday the compositions should be
written in the classroom. To have them so written is, at least during
the first year, distinctly better. The first draft of the composition
should be brought to class ready for amendment and copying. During the
writing the teacher should be among the pupils offering assistance,
and insisting upon good penmanship. Care at the beginning will form a
habit of neatness, and keep the penmanship up to a high standard.
The arrangement suggested is only one plan. This works well. Many
others may be adopted. But no plan should be accepted which makes the
number of essays fewer than one a week; nor should the number of days
given to literature be smaller than three a week.
During the second year, if the instructor thinks it can be done
without loss, the compositions may be written outside of school hours
and brought to class on a definite day. A pupil should not be allowed
to put off the writing of a composition any more than a lesson in
geometry. On Monday of each week a composition should be handed in;
irregularity only makes the work displeasing and leads to shirking.
Writing out of school gives more time for criticism and study of
composition, and during the second year this extra time is much
needed.
By the third year the pupils certainly can do the work out of school.
As the compositions increase in length, more time will be necessary
for their preparation. The teacher should, however, know exactly what
progress has been made each week; and by individual criticisms and by
wise suggestions she should help the pupil to meet the difficulties of
his special case.
In order that the instructor may have time for individual criticism,
she should have two periods each day vacant in which to meet pupils
for consultation. To make this clear, suppose that a teacher of
English has one hundred pupils in her classes. She should have no
more, for one hundred essays a week are enough for any person to
correct. If there be six recitation periods daily, place twenty-five
pupils in each of four sections for the study of literature,
composition, and general criticism. This leaves two periods each day
to meet individuals, giving ten pupils for each period. These should
come on scheduled days, with the same regularity as for class
recitation. The pupil's work should have been handed in on the second
day before he comes up for consultation, in order that the teacher may
be competent to give criticisms of any value. The inspiration of the
first reading cannot be depended upon to suggest any help, nor is
there time for such a reading during the recitation.
There will be need of class recitation in argument. Ten days or two
weeks are all that is necessary for text-book work. This should be
done before pupils read the "Conciliation." In the reading constantly
keep before the pupils the methods of the author.
Every teacher should be able to do what she asks of the pupils. No
person would dare to offer herself as a teacher of Latin or algebra
until she could write all the translations of the one and solve all
the problems of the other. Yet there are persons who have the audacity
to offer their services as teachers of English, when they cannot write
a letter correctly, to say nothing of a more formal piece of
composition. If an instructor in physics, who had asked his pupils to
solve a problem in electricity, should say to each unfortunate person
as he handed in his solution, "No, that isn't right; you'll have to
try again," without offering any help or suggestion, and should
continue this discouraging process until some bright pupil worked it
out, or perhaps some one guessed it, we should say that such a person
was no instructor at all. We might go so far as to question his
intellectual competency. We certainly should think him quite deserving
of dismissal. Still many teachers of English do nothing more than say,
"It isn't right. Make it so." If the teacher does not know how to do
the thing she asks the pupils to do, she should not be teaching. And
even when she can do it, she will often benefit herself and the pupils
by actually writing the composition. In this way not only does she
gain command of her own powers of expression, but she finds out the
difficulties with which the pupils have to contend. Every teacher of
English composition should be able to do some creditable work in
English; and every teacher of English should put this talent into
actual use.
Numerous examples of correct paragraphs, well-made sentences, and apt
words have not been included in the text. They have been omitted
because they can be found in the literature study. It is better for
pupils to find these for themselves. It will put them in the way of
reading with the senses always alert for something good; and all good
paragraphs and sentences lose something of their beautiful adaptation
when torn from the place of their birth and growth.
So, too, there are no long lists of errors. One hundred pupils in a
term make enough to fill a volume. When a teacher knows that Sentences
is to be her next subject she should begin three months in advance to
get a good collection of specimens. These should be classified so that
they may be most usable. By the time the class comes to the study of
Sentences some new, live material will be on hand for illustration.
In the pupils' exercises each week those errors should be singled out
and dwelt upon which are the special subject of text-book work. If the
pupils are studying Coherence in sentence structure, select all
violations of this principle in the week's exercises, and by means of
them nail that one principle down instead of trying to lay down the
whole set of principles given in the chapter on Sentences. Alongside
of this collection of mistakes in Coherence of sentences show the
pupils the best examples of tight-jointed sentences to be found in the
literature they are studying. Point out how these sentences have been
made to hold together, and how their own shambling creations can be
corrected.
Some teachers will fear the amount of literature required. It may seem
large, especially in the first two years. It certainly would be quite
impossible to read aloud in class all of this. However, that is not
intended. There would be but sorry progress either in the course of
study or in the power to analyze literature if the class time were
taken up with oral reading of narration and description. The whole of
a short story or one or two chapters of a novel are not too much for a
lesson. The discussion of the meaning and the method of the author
should take up the largest part of the time. Then such portions should
be read aloud as are especially suited to an exercise in oral reading.
In this way the apparently large list will be easily covered within
the time.
Moreover, there is distinct gain in reading much. If only three or
four pages be given for a lesson, the study of literature degenerates
into a study of words. A study of words is necessary, but it is only a
part of the study of literature. Such a method of study gives the
pupil no sense of values. He does not get out into the wide spaces of
the author's thought, but is eternally hedged about by the dwarfing
barriers of etymology and grammar.
B. THE FORM OF A COMPOSITION.
THE MARGIN. It is the custom to leave a margin of about an inch at the
left side of the page. In this margin the corrections should be
written, not in the composition. There should be no margin at the
right. The device of writing incomplete lines, or of making each
sentence a paragraph, is sometimes adopted by young persons in the
hope of deceiving the teacher as to the length of the composition.
Remember that pages do not count for literature any more than yards of
hideous advertising boards count as art. Write a full page with a
straight-lined margin at the left.
INDENTION. To designate the beginning of a new paragraph, it is
customary to have the first line begin an inch farther in than the
other lines. This indention of the margin and the incomplete line at
the end mark the visible limits of the paragraph.
THE HEADING. The heading or title of the composition should be written
about an inch and a half from the top of the page, and well placed in
the middle from left to right. There should be a blank line between
the title and the beginning of the composition. Some persons prefer,
in addition to the title, the name of the writer and the date of
writing,--an unnecessary addition, it seems to me. If they are to
appear, the name should be at the left and the date at the right, both
on one line. The title will be on the next line below.
Jay Phillips. Jan. 27, 1900.
The Circus-Man's Story.
"There was once an old man whom they called a wizard, and
who lived in a great cave by the sea and raised dragons. Now
when I was a very little boy, I had read a great deal about
this old man and felt as if he were quite a friend of mine.
I had planned for a long time to pay him a visit, although I
had not decided just when I should start. But the day Jim
White's father brought him that camel, I was crazy to be
after my dragon at once.
"When bedtime came, I had made all my plans; and scarcely
had Nurse turned her back when I was on my way. It was
really very far, but I traveled so swiftly that I arrived in
a remarkably short time at the wizard's house. When I
rapped, he opened the door and asked me in.
"'I came to see if you had any dragons left,' I told him. 'I
should like a very good, gentle dragon,' I added, 'that
would not scare Nurse; and if it is isn't too much trouble,
I should want one that I could ride.'"
THE INDORSEMENT. When the composition is finished, it should be folded
but once up and down the middle of the page. The indorsement upon the
back is generally written toward the edges of the leaves, not toward
the folded edge. I prefer the other way, however; and for this reason.
If in a bunch of essays a teacher is searching for a particular one,
she generally holds them in the left hand and with the fingers of the
right lifts one essay after another. Indorsing toward the folded edge
insures lifting a whole essay every time; while if the edges of the
leaves be toward the right hand, too many or too few may be lifted.
The indorsement should contain: first, the name of the writer; second,
the term and period of his recitation; third, the title of the essay;
and fourth, the date. In describing the class and period, it is well
to use a Roman numeral for the term, counting two terms in each year,
and an Arabic numeral to denote the period of his recitation.
||=============================
|| |
|| Jay Phillips. |
|| |
|| II, 3. |
|| |
|| The Circus-Man's Story. |
|| |
|| Jan. 27, 1900. |
| |
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
PENMANSHIP. The penmanship should be neat and legible. Not all persons
can write elegantly; but all can write so that their work can be
easily read, and all can make a clean page. Scribbling is due to
carelessness. A scribbled page points to a scribbling mind; clean-cut
handwriting, perhaps not Spencerian, but a clear, legible handwriting
is not only an indication of clear-cut thinking but a means and
promoter of accurate thought. Moreover, as a business proposition, one
cannot afford to become a slovenly penman. Every composition should be
a lesson in penmanship, and by so much improve one's chances in the
business world. And last, the teacher who has to read and correct the
compositions of from one hundred to two hundred persons each week
demands some consideration. No one but a teacher knows the drudgery of
this work; it can be much lightened if each pupil writes so that the
composition can be read without difficulty. By doing this, the pupil
is sure of better criticism; for the teacher can give all her
attention to the composition, none being demanded for the penmanship.
C. MARKS FOR CORRECTION OF COMPOSITIONS.
In correcting compositions certain abbreviations will save a teacher
much time. Some of the common ones are given below. Underscore the
element that needs correcting, and put the abbreviation in the margin.
In case the whole paragraph needs remodeling, draw a line at its side
and note the correction in the margin.
Cap. Use a capital letter.
l. c. Use a small letter.
D. See the dictionary for the correct use of the word.
Sp. Spelling.
Gr. A mistake in grammatical use of language.
Cnst. The construction of the sentence is awkward or
unidiomatic.
Cl. Not clear. The remedy may be suggested by reference to
certain pages of the text.
W. Weak. As above, point out the trouble by a page
reference.
Rep. Repetition is monotonous; or it may be necessary for
clearness.
p. Punctuation.
Cond. Condense.
Exp. Expand.
Tr. Transpose.
? Some fault not designated. It is well to use page
reference.
¶ Make a new paragraph.
No ¶ Unite into one paragraph.
[Greek lower-case delta] Cut out.
^ There is something omitted.
In addition to the above very common corrections, many others should
be made. Instead of abbreviations, it will be better to refer the
pupil to the page of the book which treats of the special fault. For
instance, if there be an unexpected change of construction, underscore
it, and write in the margin "226;" on this page is found "parallel
construction" of sentences. It may be well to use the letters U., C.,
and M., in connection with the page numbers to indicate that the fault
is in the unity, coherence, or mass of the element to be corrected.
The constant reference to the fuller statement of the principles
violated will serve to fix them in the mind.
D. PUNCTUATION.
Punctuation seeks to do for written composition what inflections and
pauses accomplish in vocal expression. It makes clear what kind of an
expression the whole sentence is: whether declarative, exclamatory, or
interrogative. And it assists in indicating the relations of the
different parts within a sentence. While there is practically
uniformity in the method of punctuation at the end of a sentence,
within a sentence punctuation shows much variety of method. Where one
person uses a comma, another inserts a semicolon; and where one finds
a semicolon sufficient, another requires a colon. It should be
remembered that the parts of a sentence have not equal rank; and that
the difference in rank should, as far as possible, be indicated by the
marks of punctuation. Keeping in mind, also, the fact that the
internal marks of punctuation,--the colon, the semicolon, and the
comma,--have a rank in the order mentioned, from the greatest to the
least, a writer will use the stronger marks when the rank of the parts
of a sentence demands them, and the weaker marks to separate the
lesser elements of the sentence. The sentences below illustrate the
variety which may be practiced, and the use of punctuation to show the
relation and rank of the elements of a sentence.
1. Internal punctuation is largely a matter of taste but there are
definite rules for final punctuation.
2. Internal punctuation is largely a matter of taste; there are,
however, definite rules for final punctuation.
3. Internal punctuation, the purpose of which is to group phrases and
clauses which belong together and to separate those which do not
belong together, and to indicate the relative rank of the parts
separated, is, to a great extent, a matter of taste: on the other
hand, there are definite rules for final punctuation, the object of
which is to separate sentences, and also to assist in telling what
kind of a sentence precedes it; that is, whether it be declarative,
interrogative, or exclamatory.
Looking at the first sentence, we find two elements of equal rank
separated by a comma. Some authors would prefer no punctuation at all
in a sentence as short as this. Again, if one wished to make the two
elements very independent, he would use a semicolon. There would be
but little difference in meaning between no punctuation and a comma;
but there is a wide difference in meaning between no punctuation and a
semicolon. The independence caused by the use of the semicolon is felt
in the second sentence, where the words are the same except one. In
this sentence a colon might be used; and one might go so far as to
make two sentences of it. Notice that in these two sentences the
question is how independent you wish the elements to be, and it is
also a question of taste. In the third sentence, there are elements of
different rank. To indicate the rank, punctuation of different value
must be introduced. The two independent elements are separated by a
colon. A semicolon might be used, if a semicolon were not used within
the second independent element. This renders the greater mark
necessary. Look at the commas in the first independent element. The
assertion is that "internal punctuation is a matter of taste." This is
too sweeping. It is modified by an explanatory phrase, "to a large
extent;" and this phrase is inclosed by commas. Moreover, the long
clause indicating the purpose of internal punctuation is inclosed by
commas. The use of a semicolon in the second part falls under the
third rule for the semicolon. If one should substitute for this
semicolon a comma and a dash, he could use a semicolon instead of a
colon for separating the two main divisions of the sentence. However,
the method in which they are first punctuated is in accord with the
rules generally accepted. The simplest of these rules are given below
but one must never be surprised to find a piece of literature in which
the internal punctuation is at variance with these rules.
CAPITAL LETTERS.
1. A capital letter begins every new sentence.
2. A capital letter begins every line of poetry.
3. All names of Deity begin with a capital letter.
4. All proper names begin with capital letters.
5. All adjectives derived from proper nouns begin with capital
letters.
6. The first word of every direct quotation begins with a capital
letter.
7. Most abbreviations use capital letters.
COMMAS.
8. A series of words or a series of phrases, performing similar
functions in a sentence, are separated from each other by commas,
unless all the connectives are expressed.
"Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low,--an excellent thing in woman."
"Good my lord,
You have begot me, bred me, loved me: I
Return those duties back as are right fit,
Obey you, love you, and most honor you."
But, "shining and tall and fair and straight," because all the
connectives are expressed.
9. Words out of their natural order are separated from the rest of the
sentence by commas.
"To the unlearned, punctuation is a matter of chance."
10. Words and phrases, either explanatory or slightly parenthetical,
are separated from the rest of the sentence by commas.
"Then poor Cordelia!
And yet not so; since, I am sure, my love 's
More richer than my tongue."
However when phrases and clauses are quite parenthetic, they are
separated from the remainder of the sentence by parentheses, or by
commas and dashes. The comma and dash is more common, and generally
indicates a lesser independence of the inclosed element.
"Then Miss Gunns smiled stiffly, and thought what a pity it
was that these rich country people, who could afford to buy
such good clothes (really Miss Nancy's lace and silk were
very costly), should be brought up in utter ignorance and
vulgarity."
11. The nominative of direct address, and phrases in the nominative
absolute construction are cut off by commas.
"Goneril,
Our eldest born, speak first."
"The ridges being taken, the troops advanced a thousand
yards."
12. Appositive words and phrases are separated from the remainder of
the sentence by commas.
"In the early years of this century, such a linen weaver,
named Silas Marner, worked at his vocation, in a stone
cottage that stood among the nutty hedgerows near the
village of Raveloe, and not far from the edge of a deserted
stone-pit."
13. When words are omitted, the omission is indicated by the use of a
comma.
"Fairest Cordelia, that art most rich, being poor;
Most choice, forsaken; and most loved, despis'd!"
14. A comma is used before a short and informal quotation.
"In the bitterness of his wounded spirit, he said to
himself, '_She_ will cast me off too.'"
15. A comma is used to separate the independent clauses of a compound
sentence sufficiently involved to necessitate some mark of
punctuation, and yet not involved enough to require marks of different
ranks.
"But about the Christmas of the fifteenth year a second
great change came over Marner's life, and his history became
blent in a singular manner with the life of his neighbors."
6. Small groups of more closely related words are inclosed by commas
to indicate their near relation and to separate them from words they
might otherwise be thought to modify.
"In this strange world, made a hopeless riddle to him, he
might, if he had had a less intense nature, have sat
weaving, weaving--looking towards the end of his pattern, or
towards the end of his web, till he forgot the riddle, and
everything else but his immediate sensations; but the money
had come to mark off his weaving into periods, and the money
not only grew, but it remained with him."
SEMICOLONS.
17. A semicolon is used to separate the parts of a compound sentence
if they are involved, or contain commas. It is also used to give
independence to the members of a compound sentence when not very
complex.
"The meadow was searched in vain; and he got over the stile
into the next field, looking with dying hope towards a small
pond which was now reduced to its summer shallowness, so as
to leave a wide margin of good adhesive mud."
"As for the child, he would see that it was cared for; he
would never forsake it; he would do everything but own it."
18. Semicolons are used to separate a series of clauses in much the
same way as commas are used to separate a series of words.
"I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honor;
As much as child e'er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love thee."
19. A semicolon is generally used to introduce a clause of repetition,
a clause stating the obverse, and a clause stating an inference.
(Many examples of the last two rules will be found in the discussion
of compound sentences on pages 202, 203.)
COLONS.
20. A colon is used to introduce a formal quotation. It is frequently
followed by a dash.
"Under date of November 28, 1860, she wrote to a friend:--
"'I am engaged now in writing a story--the idea of which
came to me after our arrival in this house, and which has
thrust itself between me and the other book I was
meditating. It is Silas Manner, the Weaver of Raveloe.'"
"On the last day of the same year she wrote: 'I am writing a
story which came across my other plans by a sudden
inspiration, etc.'"
21. A colon is used to introduce a series of particulars, either
appositional or explanatory, which the reader has been led to expect
by the first clause of the sentence. These particulars are separated
from each other by semicolons.
"The study of the principles of composition should include
the following subjects: a study of words as to their origin
and meaning; a study of the structure of the sentence and of
the larger elements of discourse--in other words, of
concrete logic; a study of the principles of effective
literary composition, as illustrated in the various
divisions of literature; and also a study of the æsthetics
of literature."
"What John Morley once said of literature as a whole is even
more accurate when applied to fiction alone: its purpose is
'to bring sunshine into our hearts and to drive moonshine
out of our heads.'"
22. A colon is used to separate the major parts of a very complex and
involved sentence, if the major parts, or either of them, contain
within themselves semicolons.
"For four years he had thought of Nancy Lammeter, and wooed
her with a tacit patient worship, as the woman who made him
think of the future with joy: she would be his wife, and
would make home lovely to him, as his father's home had
never been; and it would be easy, when she was always near,
to shake off those foolish habits that were no pleasures,
but only a feverish way of annulling vacancy."
23. A colon is sometimes used to mark a strong independence in the
parts of a compound sentence.
"He didn't want to give Godfrey that pleasure: he preferred
that Master Godfrey should be vexed."
THE DASH.
24. A dash is frequently used with a colon to introduce a formal
quotation. The quotation then begins a new paragraph.
(Example under colon.)
25. A dash is used alone or with a comma to inclose a phrase or clause
which is parenthetic or explanatory.
"'But as for being ugly, look at me, child, in this
silver-colored silk--I told you how it 'ud be--I look as
yallow as a daffadil.'"
(Example under comma.)
26. A dash is used to denote a sudden turn of the thought.
"I've no opinion of the men, Miss Gunn--I don't know what
_you_ have."
"'It does make her look funny, though--partly like a
short-necked bottle wi' a long quill in it."
27. A dash is frequently used when the composition should be
interrupted to indicate the intensity of the emotion.
"No--no--I can't part with it, I can't let it go,' said
Silas abruptly. 'It's come to me--I've a right to keep it.'"
"And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
Never, never, never, never, never!--
Pray you, undo this button:--thank you, sir.--
Do you see this? Look on her,--look,--her lips,--
Look there, look there!"--
28. A dash is sometimes used alone before an appositive phrase or
clause.
"For the first time he determined to try the coal-hole--a
small closet near the hearth."
PERIOD, EXCLAMATION POINT, INTERROGATION MARK.
29. A period closes every declarative sentence.
30. A period is used after abbreviations.
31. An exclamation point follows an expression of strong emotion.
32. An interrogation mark follows a direct question.
33. An interrogation mark is sometimes used in the body of a sentence,
when the writer wishes to make the assertion forceful and uses a
rhetorical question for the purpose.
"The shepherd's dog barked fiercely when one of these
alien-looking men appeared on the upland, dark against the
early winter sunset; for what dog likes a figure bent under
a heavy bag?--and these pale men rarely stirred abroad
without that mysterious burden."
34. Quotation marks inclose every quotation of the exact words of
another. When one quotation is made within another, the inner or
secondary quotation is inclosed with single marks, the main or outer
quotation is included within the double marks.
(Examples of both may be found above.)
SUGGESTIONS FOR TEACHING PUNCTUATION.
At the time the pupils are studying the rules for punctuation they are
reading Hawthorne or some other author equally careful of his
punctuation. In his writing they will find numerous examples of the
rules for punctuation. Let them take five rules for the comma, finding
all the examples in five pages of text. In the same way furnish
semicolons, colons, and dashes. When the rules have all been learned,
they should be able to give the reason for every mark they find in
literature. Next place upon the board paragraphs not punctuated, and
have the pupils punctuate them. Remember that there is not absolute
uniformity in the use of the comma, semicolon, and colon; though in
each author there is a general adherence to the principles he adopts.
Punctuation should be consistent. Insist that the pupil punctuate his
written work consistently.
E. SUPPLEMENTARY LIST OF LITERATURE.[57]
HAWTHORNE . . . . . . . A Wonder-Book for Girls and Boys.
TENNYSON. . . . . . . . Enoch Arden.
LONGFELLOW. . . . . . . Tales of a Wayside Inn.
WHITTIER. . . . . . . . The Tent on the Beach.
MACAULAY. . . . . . . . Lays of Ancient Rome.
DICKENS . . . . . . . . A Christmas Carol.
KIPLING . . . . . . . . Wee Willie Winkie, and Other Stories.
KIPLING . . . . . . . . The Jungle Books.
HAWTHORNE . . . . . . . Twice-Told Tales.
HAWTHORNE . . . . . . . Mosses from an Old Manse.
DICKENS . . . . . . . . The Cricket on the Hearth.
BROWN . . . . . . . . . Rab and his Friends.
OUIDA . . . . . . . . . A Dog of Flanders.
HALE. . . . . . . . . . The Man without a Country.
DEFOE . . . . . . . . . Robinson Crusoe.
POE . . . . . . . . . . The Gold-Bug.
SCOTT . . . . . . . . . Marmion.
SCOTT . . . . . . . . . The Lady of the Lake.
BROWNING. . . . . . . . Hervé Riel, an Incident of the French Camp,
and other Narrative Poems.
FRANKLIN. . . . . . . . Autobiography.
COOPER. . . . . . . . . The Last of the Mohicans.
LONGFELLOW. . . . . . . Evangeline.
LONGFELLOW. . . . . . . Miles Standish.
DAVIS . . . . . . . . . Gallegher, and Other Stories.
MAUPASSANT. . . . . . . Number Thirteen.
MISS WILKINS. . . . . . Short Stories.
MISS JEWETT . . . . . . Short Stories.
POPE. . . . . . . . . . The Iliad.
ALDRICH . . . . . . . . Marjorie Daw.
LOWELL. . . . . . . . . The Vision of Sir Launfal, and Other Poems.
IRVING. . . . . . . . . Tales of a Traveller.
IRVING. . . . . . . . . The Sketch Book.
POE . . . . . . . . . . The Fall of the House of Usher.
WHITTIER. . . . . . . . Snow-Bound.
BURROUGHS . . . . . . . Sharp Eyes; Birds and Bees; Pepacton.
GOLDSMITH . . . . . . . The Deserted Village.
SCOTT . . . . . . . . . Ivanhoe.
DICKENS . . . . . . . . David Copperfield.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . Julius Cæsar.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . The Merchant of Venice.
IRVING. . . . . . . . . Rip Van Winkle.
IRVING. . . . . . . . . The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
BRYANT. . . . . . . . . Selected Poems.
GRAY. . . . . . . . . . An Elegy in a Country Churchyard.
TENNYSON. . . . . . . . The Princess; Idylls of the King.
DICKENS . . . . . . . . The Pickwick Papers.
BURNS . . . . . . . . . Selected Poems.
DRYDEN. . . . . . . . . Alexander's Feast.
BYRON . . . . . . . . . Childe Harold.
GEORGE ELIOT. . . . . . Silas Marner.
COLERIDGE . . . . . . . The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
MACAULAY. . . . . . . . Essay on Milton.
RUSKIN. . . . . . . . . Sesame and Lilies.
EMERSON . . . . . . . . Friendship; Self-Reliance; Fortune of the
Republic; The American Scholar.
ARNOLD. . . . . . . . . On the Study of Poetry; Wordsworth and Keats.
LOWELL. . . . . . . . . Emerson, the Lecturer; Milton; Books and
Libraries.
HOLMES. . . . . . . . . The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.
ADDISON . . . . . . . . The Sir Roger de Coverley Papers.
WORDSWORTH. . . . . . . Intimations of Immortality, and Other Poems.
KEATS . . . . . . . . . Selected Poems.
SHELLEY . . . . . . . . Selected Poems.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . Macbeth.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . A Midsummer Night's Dream.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . As You Like It.
WEBSTER . . . . . . . . Bunker Hill Monument Oration; Adams and
Jefferson.
GOLDSMITH . . . . . . . The Vicar of Wakefield.
MILTON. . . . . . . . . L'Allegro; Il Penseroso; Comus; Lycidas.
DE QUINCEY. . . . . . . Confessions of an English Opium Eater, and
Other Papers.
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN . . . Selected Essays.
THACKERAY . . . . . . . Henry Esmond.
STEVENSON . . . . . . . Virginibus Puerisque.
STEVENSON . . . . . . . Memories and Portraits.
SCHURZ. . . . . . . . . Abraham Lincoln.
GEORGE WILLIAM CURTIS . Selected Addresses.
CHARLES LAMB. . . . . . Essays of Elia.
STEVENSON . . . . . . . Travels with a Donkey.
STEVENSON . . . . . . . An Inland Voyage.
BURKE . . . . . . . . . Conciliation with the Colonies.
LINCOLN . . . . . . . . Cooper Union Address; Gettysburg Speech.
CHAUCER . . . . . . . . Prologue, and Two Canterbury Tales.
MILTON. . . . . . . . . Paradise Lost, and Sonnets.
CARLYLE . . . . . . . . Essay on Burns.
TENNYSON. . . . . . . . In Memoriam, and Lyrics.
BROWNING. . . . . . . . Rabbi Ben Ezra; Saul; A Grammarian's Funeral.
THOREAU . . . . . . . . Walden.
AUSTEN. . . . . . . . . Pride and Prejudice.
GEORGE ELIOT. . . . . . Romola.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . King Lear.
SHAKESPEARE . . . . . . Hamlet.
MACAULAY. . . . . . . . Essay on Johnson.
THACKERAY . . . . . . . Vanity Fair.
LOWELL. . . . . . . . . Democracy; Lincoln.
STEVENSON . . . . . . . Lantern Bearers; A Humble Remonstrance; Gossip
about Romance.
* * * * *
INDEX
Abstract vs. concrete, 89, 90.
"Adams and Jefferson," Webster's, quotation from, 176.
Adjectives, 78.
"Alice in Wonderland," a story without facts, 25.
Allegory, 261.
Allusion, 263.
Amphibrach, 273.
Analogy, use of, 137.
Anapest, defined, 273;
interchangeable with iambus, 278.
"And," use of, 192.
Andersen, Hans Christian, his "Tannenbaum," 12.
Anecdotes in exposition, 97.
"Annabel Lee," quotations from, 271, 278, 279.
Anti-climax, 210.
Antithesis, 227.
"Apologia," Newman's, quotation from, 160.
Apostrophe, 261.
Argument, 4, 128-137;
from cause, 133;
sign, 133-137;
example, 137.
Arnold, Matthew, quotation from, 159;
quotation to illustrate repetition, 167;
to illustrate sentence structure, 222.
Arrangement, in narration, 29-32;
description, 74, 75;
exposition, 108-114;
argument, 138-141;
sentence, 222, 223.
Association of ideas, 103.
"Autumn Effect, An," quotation from, 17.
"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," its purpose, 7;
beginning, 29;
length of sentences in, 33;
time for the action, 36.
Balanced sentences, 227, 228.
Ballad, defined, 285.
"Barbara Frietchie," a narrative poem, 4.
Bates, Arlo, quoted, 35.
Beauty, gained by use of figurative language, 258.
Beginning of a story, 29.
Bellamy, Edward, his "Looking Backward," 7.
"Biglow Papers," quotation from, 51.
"Birthmark," Hawthorne's, 24.
Blake, William, "Tiger, Tiger," quoted, 282, 283.
"Bonnie Brier Bush, Beside the," 25.
Bookish words, 242.
"Break, Break, Break," quotation from, 283.
"Bridge of Sighs, The," quotation from, 270.
Brief in argument, 138, 139.
Browning, Robert, vivid narration of, 23.
"Burial of Sir John Moore, The," quotation from, 277.
Burke, Edmund, quotation from his speech on "Conciliation with the
Colonies," 116;
that speech analyzed, 142-147;
quotations to illustrate paragraph structure, 171, 175, 177, 188;
quotations to show sentence structure, 200, 209, 214, 226.
Burroughs, John, his knowledge of his field, 9;
quotations from, 158, 160.
"But," use of, 192.
Capital letters, 303.
Cause and effect, 133-136.
Characters, number of, 35.
Chaucer, Geoffrey, quotation from, 245.
Choice of subject, 8-12.
Choice of words, 78-80, 239-255.
"Cinderella," 12.
Clearness and coherence, 180-193, 224, 225.
Clearness gained by use of figurative language, 258.
Climax, 139-141, 211, 218;
defined, 262.
Coherence, 20;
in narration, 31, 32;
in description, 74, 75;
in exposition, 116-118;
in paragraphs, 180-193;
in sentences, 224, 225.
Colons, 306, 307.
Comedy, 286.
Commas, 303, 304.
Comparisons, use of, 77, 98;
paragraph of, 165;
confusion of, 259.
Composition, 1;
oral and written, 2;
conventions of, 2.
"Conciliation with the Colonies," Burke's speech on, quoted, 116, 171,
175, 177, 188, 214, 226;
analyzed, 142-147.
Conclusion of a story, 23.
Concrete facts, use of, 89, 90.
Conjunctions, use of, 190, 191.
Connectives in sentences, 228, 229.
Consistency, 25.
Cooke, Josiah P., his essay on "Fire," 8.
"Copyright," quotations from Macaulay's speech on, 159, 172.
Correction, marks for, 300.
Curtis, George William, quoted, 111.
Dactyl, defined, 272;
interchangeable with trochee, 278.
"Daisy, The," Wordsworth's quotation from, 274.
"Darkness and Dawn," 8.
Dash, 307, 308.
"David Copperfield," description quoted from, 65.
"David Harum," its construction criticised, 22.
Davis, Richard Harding, small number of characters in his books, 35;
simple plot in his "Gallegher," 36.
Deduction, 129.
Definition, a, 91-94.
Description, 4, 49-80;
an aid to narration, 34;
and exposition, 91.
Description and painting, 50.
Details, in narration, 22-25;
paragraph of, 163.
Dickens, Charles, his "Nicholas Nickleby" as an exposition, 5;
description from his "David Copperfield" quoted, 65;
quotations from Mr. Micawber's conversation, 253.
Dictionary, use of, 237.
Differentia, 92, 93.
Digression, 22.
Dimeter, 274.
Discourse, forms of, 3-7.
"Discussions and Arguments," Newman's, quotation from, 97.
Dramatic poetry, 286.
Dynamic point of sentence, 221.
Elegy, the, 285.
Eliot, George, her "Silas Marner," 13;
quotation from, 152-156.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo, primarily an essayist, 9.
Emotional statement, 115.
Emphasis, how secured, 110-112, 115, 116, 217-219.
End of a paragraph, 175-179;
of a sentence, 208-212.
"English Composition," Wendell's, quotation from, 94.
Enthymeme, 130.
Enumeration _vs._ suggestion, 52.
Enumerative description, 54.
Epic, the, 284.
Epithet, 260.
"Evangeline," quotation from, 277, 278.
Events, order of, 29, 30.
Everett, Edward, description from, quoted, 71.
Examples, paragraph of, 171.
Exclamation, 262.
Exclamation point, 308.
Exclusion of details, 22, 23, 26.
Exposition, 4, 89-120;
and description, 91.
Facts in stories, 25.
"Faerie Queene, The," quotation from, 281.
"Fall of the House of Usher, The," descriptions in, 34;
quotation from, 69, 71.
Familiar images, 76.
Farrar, Canon, as a writer of sermons, 8.
"Feathertop," 13.
Figurative language, 257;
value of, 258.
Figures of speech, 77, 250, 257-268.
Fine writing, 253.
"First Snow-Fall, The," quotation from, 274.
Fiske, John, his "History of the United States," 25.
Foot, a, in poetry, 272;
one kind may be substituted for another, 277-281;
first and last foot of a verse may be irregular, 281, 282.
Force, gained by use of figurative language, 258.
Foreign words, 243.
Francis I. quoted, 113.
"Function of Criticism at the Present Time," Arnold's, quotation from,
222.
"Gallegher," simple plot of, 36.
General terms, 89, 248-252.
Genung, J. F., on paragraph structure, 162.
Genus and differentia, 92, 93.
"Gold Bug," length of sentences in, 33.
Good usage, 222, 223, 239-245.
Grant, U. S., his "Memoirs" have no plot, 16.
Hackneyed phrases, 253.
Haggard, Rider, 12.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, a story writer, 9;
his "Feathertop," 13;
his descriptions in "The Marble Faun," 34;
quoted, 50;
quotations from, about "The Old Manse," 58, 59;
descriptions from his "House of the Seven Gables" quoted, 66;
from "The Old Apple Dealer," 67.
Heading of essay, 297.
Heptameter, 275.
"Hervé Riel" as a piece of narrative, 23.
Hexameter, 275.
"Hiawatha," quotation from, 270.
"Historical Sketches," Newman's, quotation from, 52-54.
Hood, Thomas, "The Bridge of Sighs" quoted, 270.
"House of the Seven Gables," descriptions quoted from, 66.
Hugo, Victor, his description of Waterloo quoted, 67.
Huxley, Thomas, example of his use of comparison, 98;
quotation from, to illustrate paragraph structure, 161.
Hyperbole, 263.
Iambus, defined, 272;
the common foot of English verse, 272, 279;
interchangeable with anapest, 278.
"Idea of a University," quotations from, 95, 171, 193, 203, 210, 247.
Illustrations, their value, 97.
"Impressions de Théâtre," quotation from, 63.
"Incident of a French Camp, An," as an example of a short story, 23.
Incident, the main, 20, 21.
Incidents, order of, 29, 30.
Inclusion of material, 24.
Indention of paragraph, 297.
Individual arrangement of paragraph, 181-188.
Individuality of author, 8.
Indorsement of essay, 298.
Induction, 128, 132.
Interest, 11, 12.
Interrogation, 262.
Interrogation point, 308.
Introduction of story, 23.
Inversion, 262.
Irony, 262.
Irrelevant matter, 22, 23.
Irving, Washington, as a story writer in the third person, 27;
description from, quoted, 54;
short characterization quoted, 70;
description of a coachman quoted, 75;
quotations to illustrate paragraph structure, 164, 183;
to illustrate sentence construction, 202, 203, 219, 220, 229.
Jonson, Ben, quotation from, 280.
"Jungle Books," 12;
quotation from, 78.
"Kidnapped," quotations from, 15, 165;
its unity, 27.
"King Lear," its plot, 16;
quotation from, 60.
Kingsley, Charles, "The Three Fishers" quoted, 271.
Kipling, Rudyard, his "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep," 7;
his "Jungle Books," 12;
his use of climax, 21;
as a story-teller, 22, 27;
small number of characters in his stories, 35;
quotation from his "Light that Failed," 60;
description quoted from his "Jungle Books," 78;
quotation to illustrate sentence construction, 201;
his "L'Envoi" quoted, 252.
"Lady of the Lake, The," quotation from, 269.
Language _vs._ painting, 49-52.
Lanier, Sidney, "The Science of English Verse," cited, 269;
quoted, 273.
Latin words, 245-248.
Le Gallienne, Richard, his essay on pigs, 10;
quoted, 257.
"Legend of Sleepy Hollow, The," 27, 29;
description in, 34;
quotation from to show paragraph structure, 163, 183;
to show sentence structure, 202, 219.
Lemaître, Jules, criticism of Zola quoted, 63.
Length, of a description, 63, 64;
of a paragraph, 151-156;
of a sentence, 178, 179, 204, 205.
"L'Envoi" to "The Seven Seas," quoted, 252.
"Les Misérables," its intricate plot, 16;
quotation from, 67.
"Light that Failed, The," quotation from, 60.
"Little Dorrit," large number of characters in, 35.
"Little Red Riding Hood," 12.
Logical definition, 91.
"London Bridge," quotation from, 282.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, "Hiawatha" quoted, 270;
"Evangeline" quoted, 277, 278;
"The Village Blacksmith" quoted, 279, 280.
"Looking Backward," as a novel with a purpose, 7.
Loose sentences, 212, 214, 215.
Lovelace, Richard, quoted, 112.
Lowell, James Russell, his "Sir Launfal," 13;
quotation from "Biglow Papers," 51;
from a "Song," 52;
from "To W. L. Garrison," 89;
from "The First Snow-Fall," 274.
Lyric poetry, 285.
Lytton, Lord, quotation from, 241.
Macaulay, Lord, quotation on Milton from, 96;
quotation to illustrate comparison, 98;
his essay on "Milton" analyzed, 106;
last sentence of that essay quoted, 111;
that essay as an example of proportion in treatment, 114;
his denunciation of Charles I. quoted, 115;
further quotations from his "Milton," 117;
his speeches on "Copyright" and the "Reform Bill" quoted, 159, 172,
193;
quotations from the "Milton" to illustrate paragraph structure, 164,
166, 168, 178, 182, 184.
"Macbeth," 13.
Maclaren, Ian, 25.
Main incident, 20-26.
Major term, 129.
"Marble Faun, The," description in, 34.
Margin of composition, 296.
"Marmion," 27, 29;
quoted, 276.
Mass, 20;
in description, 64-75;
in exposition, 108-114;
in paragraphs, 174-178;
in sentences, 207-212.
Masson, David, 104.
Maupassant, Guy de, quotation from his "Pierre et Jean," 56;
from his "Odd Number," 156.
Meredith, George, quotation from, to illustrate paragraph structure,
161;
sentence structure, 205.
Metaphor, 77, 260.
Metonymy, 250, 263.
Metre, kinds of, 273-275;
variations in, 276.
Metrical romance, the, 284.
Middle term, 130.
"Milton," Macaulay's essay on, quotations from, 96, 98, 111, 115, 117,
119, 164, 166-168, 178, 184;
analyzed, 106.
Milton, John, quotations from, 241, 245, 248.
Minor term, 129.
Monometer, 273.
Mood in description, 59-62, 67-69.
"Mosses from an Old Manse," quotation from, 50.
Movement of story, 32, 33.
Narration, 4, 13-37.
Narrative poetry, 284.
National usage, 242.
"New Testament," quotation from, 241.
Newman, Cardinal, quotation from, about Athens, 52;
quotation on theology, 95;
quotation to illustrate the use of specific instances in exposition,
97;
to illustrate paragraph structure, 160, 171, 177, 193;
to show sentence construction, 203, 210;
to show use of words, 247.
"Nicholas Nickleby," as an exposition of school abuses, 5.
Nouns, 78.
Number of characters, 35.
Observation, its value, 55.
Obverse statement, 95, 96;
paragraph of, 169-171.
Octameter, 275.
"Odd Number, The," quotation from, 156.
Ode, defined, 285.
"OEnone," quotation from, 51.
"Old Apple Dealer, The," quotation from, 67.
Omniscience of an author, 27.
Order of events in stories, 29;
of words in sentences, 217-219.
Outline, use of, 32, 109, 110, 138, 139, 174.
Palmer, Professor G. H., quotations from, on composition writing, 101,
112.
"Paradise Lost," quotations from, 241, 245, 248.
Paragraphs, 151-195.
Parallel construction, 192-194, 226, 227.
Particulars in exposition, 96;
paragraph of, 163.
Penmanship, 300.
Pentameter, 274.
"Pepacton," 9;
quotations from, 158, 160.
Period, 308.
Periodic sentences, 212-216.
Personification, 77, 260.
Persuasion, 4.
Philippians iv. 8, 241.
"Physical Basis of Life," Huxley's, quotations from, 98, 161.
"Pierre et Jean," quotation from, 55.
"Pilgrim's Progress," 13.
Place of a story, 29.
Plot, 15-20, 36.
Poe, Edgar Allan, his sentences, 33;
his use of description in "The Fall of the House of Usher," 34;
quotations from that work, 68, 71;
"Annabel Lee" quoted, 271, 278, 279.
Poetic feet, 272.
Poetical words, 254.
Poetry, kinds of, 284-286.
Point of view, 56-59;
change of, 58;
mental, 59.
Position of words in sentences, 217.
"Præterita," Ruskin's, quotations from, 169.
Premises, 129;
false, 131.
"Present Position of Catholics in England," Newman's, quotation from,
177.
Present usage of words, 244, 245.
"Prince Otto," quotations from, 72, 73.
"Princess, The," quotation from, 251.
Pronouns, use of, 188, 189.
Proportion in description, 73;
in exposition, 104-108, 114;
in paragraphs, 179.
"Prose Fancies," 10.
Provincialisms, 242.
Purpose, of an author, 6, 7;
in description, 59-62.
Quotation marks, 308.
"Quo Vadis," 7.
Rapidity of movement, 32.
"Reform Bill," quotation from Macaulay's speech on, 193.
Refutation in argument, 141.
Repetition, its value, 94;
paragraph of, 167.
Reputable words, 239-241.
"Richard Feverel," quotations from, 161, 205.
"Richelieu," quotation from, 241.
"Robinson Crusoe," has little plot, 16.
Royce, Josiah, quotation from, 242.
Ruskin, John, 49;
quotation to illustrate building up a paragraph, 169;
his "Sesame and Lilies," 239.
Saxon words, 245-248.
Scale of treatment, 104-108.
Scansion, 275-284;
requisites for scanning, 283, 284.
"Science of English Verse, The," quotation from, 273.
Scott, Sir Walter, as a story-teller in the third person, 27;
his dull introductory chapters, 31;
"The Lady of the Lake" quoted, 269;
"Marmion" quoted, 276.
Selection of material in narration, 21-28;
in description, 56-62;
in exposition, 102-104;
in argument, 138.
"Self-Cultivation in English," quotation from, 101, 112.
Semicolons, 202, 203, 305, 306.
Sentences, 200-230;
simple and compound, 200, 201;
long or short, 204, 205.
Sequence of events, 29, 30.
Serial arrangement of paragraph, 181-188.
"Sesame and Lilies," 239.
Sienkiewicz, Henry, his "Quo Vadis," 7.
"Silas Marner," written for a purpose, 13;
example of a plot, 20;
time consumed in the story, 36;
quotation to show paragraph length, 152-156.
Simile, 77, 261.
Sing-song, natural tendency toward, 269, 276.
Slang, 240.
Slowness of movement, 33.
"Snow-Bound," narrative or descriptive?, 4.
Song defined, 285.
Sonnet defined, 285.
Specific words, 248-252.
Spencer, Herbert, on the philosophy of the periodic sentence, 212.
Spenser, Edmund, "The Faerie Queene" quoted, 281.
"Spirit of Modern Philosophy," Royce's, quotation from, 242.
Spondee, 273.
Stanza, 275.
Stedman, E. C., an authority on literature, 9.
Stevenson, Robert Louis, his "Treasure Island" and "Travels with a
Donkey" as narratives, 4;
quotation from "Kidnapped," 15;
his "An Autumn Effect" quoted, 17;
unity in his stories, 27;
descriptions from, quoted, 62, 72;
examples of personification from, 77;
his unusual use of words, 79;
quotation to show paragraph structure, 165.
Subdual of subordinate parts, 219.
Subject, 8-12;
common, 11;
interesting, 11;
in exposition, 99, 100.
Suggestion _vs._ enumeration, 52.
Suggestions to teachers, 257-260.
Suggestive description, 55.
Summary, a, 119.
Superlatives, 80.
Syllogism, 129-132.
Synecdoche, 250, 263.
"Tannenbaum," 12.
Technical words, 242.
Tennyson, Lord, quotations from, 51, 251, 283.
Terms of syllogism, 129, 130.
Testimony, 136.
Tetrameter, 274.
Thackeray, W. M., quotation from, 157.
Theme in exposition, 100, 101.
"Three Fishers, The," quotation from, 271.
"Tiger, Tiger," quotation from, 283.
Time of story, 35.
Title in exposition, 102.
"To W. L. Garrison," quotation from, 89.
Topic-sentence, 157;
its position, 157-161.
Tragedy, 286.
Transitions, 118, 119.
"Travels with a Donkey," narrative or descriptive? 4;
absence of plot, 17;
quotations from, 62, 65, 157.
"Treasure Island," a narrative, 4;
plot simple, 16.
Trimeter, 274.
Trochee, defined, 272;
interchangeable with dactyl, 278.
Type-form of paragraph, 162.
"Ugly Duckling, The," 25.
Undistributed middle, 131.
Unity, 20;
in narration, 21, 22;
in description, 56-64;
in exposition, 102, 103;
in argument, 138;
in paragraphs, 173;
in sentences, 205.
"Uses of Astronomy, The," quotation from, 72.
Value of observation, 55.
"Vanity Fair," example of a plot, 19;
quotation from, 157.
Variations in metre, 276-284.
Verbs in description, 79.
Verne, Jules, 12.
Verse, a, definition of, 273;
how named, 275.
Verse forms, 269-291.
"Village Blacksmith, The," quotation from, 279, 280.
"Vision of Sir Launfal, The," 13;
quotation from, 67.
Vocabulary, need of, 236.
Vulgarisms, 240.
"Wake Robin," 9.
Webster, Daniel, quotation from, to illustrate paragraph structure,
176;
his use of words, 247.
"Wee Willie Winkie," its climax, 21.
Wendell, Barrett, quotation on printed words from, 94.
Whittier, John G., his "Barbara Frietchie" and "Snow-Bound" as
narratives, 4.
Wilkins, Miss, small number of characters in her books, 35.
Wolfe, Charles, "The Burial of Sir John Moore" quoted, 277.
Words, 235-256;
choice of, 78, 79, 80, 254-260;
reputable, 240, 241;
national, 242;
in present use, 244, 245;
Latin and Saxon, 245-248;
general and specific, 248-252.
"Wordsworth," Arnold's essay on, quotations from, 158, 167;
"The Daisy" quoted, 274.
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES
1. See pp. 13, 14, of the Report of Committee on College Entrance
Requirements.
2. See the first essay in _Prose Fancies._
3. Unless otherwise stated, all page references are to the Riverside
Literature Series.
4. _Biglow Papers,_ No. X.
5. Tennyson's _OEnone._
6. _Historical Sketches,_ by Cardinal Newman.
7. _Pierre et Jean,_ by Maupassant. Quoted from Bates's _Talks on
Writing English._
8. _Impressions de Théâtre,_ by Jules Lemaître.
9. _The Marble Faun,_ by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
10. _Travels with a Donkey,_ by R. L. Stevenson.
11. _Les Misérables,_ by Victor Hugo.
12. _The Stage Coach,_ in Irving's _Sketch Book._
13. _The Jungle Book,_ by Rudyard Kipling.
14. _To W. L. Garrison,_ by J. R. Lowell.
15. _Idea of a University,_ by Cardinal Newman.
16. _Essay on Milton,_ by Lord Macaulay.
17. _Discussions and Arguments._
18. _Essay on Milton._
19. _The Physical Basis of Life,_ by T. H. Huxley.
20. _Self-Cultivation in English,_ by Professor G. H. Palmer.
21. Speech on _Conciliation with the Colonies,_ by Burke.
22. A text-book on Logic, such as Jevons's, should be used to
illustrate the kinds of argument more fully.
23. _Silas Marner,_ by George Eliot.
24. _The Odd Number,_ by Guy de Maupassant.
25. _Vanity Fair,_ by W. M. Thackeray.
26. _Idyl of the Honey-Bee,_ from Burroughs's _Pepacton._
27. _Essay on Wordsworth,_ by Matthew Arnold.
28. Speech on _Copyright,_ by Lord Macaulay.
29. _Idyl of the Honey-Bee,_ from Burroughs's _Pepacton._
30. _The Physical Basis of Life,_ by T. H. Huxley.
31. See Scott and Denney's _Composition-Rhetoric._
32. _Legend of Sleepy Hollow,_ by W. Irving.
33. _Essay on Milton,_ by Lord Macaulay.
34. _Kidnapped,_ by R. L. Stevenson.
35. _Præterita,_ by John Ruskin.
36. Speech on _Conciliation with the Colonies,_ by Burke.
37. Barrett Wendell's _English Composition._
38. Oration on _Adams and Jefferson,_ by Daniel Webster.
39. _Present Position of Catholics in England,_ by Cardinal Newman.
40. Speech on _Conciliation with the Colonies,_ by Burke.
41. Speech on the _Reform Bill of 1832,_ by Lord Macaulay.
42. _Idea of a University,_ by Cardinal Newman.
43. _Legend of Sleepy Hollow,_ by W. Irving.
44. _Idea of a University,_ by Cardinal Newman.
45. _Idea of a University,_ by Cardinal Newman.
46. _Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies,_ by Burke.
47. _Legend of Sleepy Hollow,_ by W. Irving.
48. _Function of Criticism at the Present Time,_ by Matthew Arnold.
49. _Speech on Conciliation with the Colonies,_ by Burke.
50. _The Spirit of Modern Philosophy,_ by Josiah Royce.
51. See Lowell's _Biglow Papers,_ Introduction to Second Series.
52. _Idea of a University,_ by Cardinal Newman.
53. From _The Princess: a Medley,_ Part IV.
54. From _The Seven Seas,_ published by D. Appleton & Co., New York.
Copyright, 1896, by Rudyard Kipling.
55. In any piece of literature there are many figures. The following
should be used only to make pupils familiar with varieties of
figures. They will find many more in the literature they read.
56. The treatment of this subject is based upon Lanier's _The Science
of English Verse._
57. See p. xix.
*** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "English: Composition and Literature" ***
Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.