praying ten miles away, the lines of the dauntless English infantry were receiving and repelling the furious charges of the French horsemen. Guns which were heard at Brussels were ploughing up their ranks, and comrades falling, and the resolute survivors closing in. Towards evening, the attack of the French, repeated and resisted so bravely, slackened in its fury. They had other foes besides the British to engage, or were preparing for a final onset. It came at last: the columns of the Imperial Guard marched up the hill of Saint Jean, at length and at once to sweep the English from the height which they had maintained all day, and spite of all: unscared by the thunder of the artillery, which hurled death from the English line—the dark rolling column pressed on and up the hill. It seemed almost to crest the eminence, when it began to wave and falter. Then it stopped, still facing the shot. Then at last the English troops rushed from the post from which no enemy had been able to dislodge them, and the Guard turned and fled." From this paragraph we gather the topic, Outline description of Waterloo. II. Exercises in determining the Sum of Paragraphs. In the following exercises you will need, much beyond what has heretofore been required, to invent. Draw freely on observation, memory, imagination, reasoning; and try thus to work out each topic by such details as belong most fittingly to it. Work out the following topics as directed, and be ready to give in each case the reason for your procedure. At first sight the house, with its surroundings, presents little that is of interest. [Amplify.] But as you look more closely you see evidences of industry and thrift without. [Particulars.] And of neatness within. [Particulars.] From which you find yourself making a conjectured history of its inmates. [Amplify.] [Use judgment regarding the amount of material you will include in each topic.] What happens daily to office by electric cars - telephone messages from various parts of the city-telegrams, some from points in this country, some from across the ocean electric signals for various things — electric lights in the evening. [Amplify these things, and deduce a topic that shall give them significance.] Some books, as Lord Bacon says, are to be chewed and digested. [Write a paragraph explaining and applying this figure.] You have always shunned monotony, and waited till you "felt like it" before you would work; therefore do not hope for success in any strenuous undertaking. [Expand into a paragraph according to Rule 92.] Hank Sawyer was what the Scotch call a "ne'er do weel.” [His small farm — all run down never systematically worked - how his neighbors despised his shiftlessness.] One of the most popular men in the neighborhood. [Witty-cheerful kind-hearted, a capital story teller.] [Give unity to this topic, according to Rule 92, and work it out in detail.] The game was now at its most critical point. [Give particulars.] Some people's characters are like a combination lock; you must know the combination before you can unlock them. [Write a paragraph interpreting this simile.] The last hundred yards of the mile run. paragraph, according to Rule 93.] [Work out a The old mill, with its antiquated machinery, is no longer used except for grinding feed. But it is still an object of interest. Its surroundings, its seclusion, its solidity, its quaint old wheel. [Work out, using judgment regarding the number and inclusion of topics.] How my friend and I made up after our misunderstanding. [Invent particulars.] II. THE PARAGRAPH IN STRUCTURE. If on the one hand the paragraph is virtually an expanded sentence, it is on the other hand, and more palpably than the sentence, a complete composition in miniature; it is constructed on the principles governing a larger composition in this respect, that it has a theme and a plan and an articulation of parts. These traits of structure may be regarded as showing the transition between the sentence and the discourse; subject and predicate are herein broadened out into topical matter and predicative matter, but not yet developed into complete and balanced divisions as in an essay. As the sum of the paragraph concerns the relation of its parts to the whole, so the structure of the paragraph concerns principally the relation of its parts to each other, à relation that involves what has been called "the secret of dove-tailing style." Its ideal is to have the current of thought absolutely continuous and interrelated from beginning to end, one unbroken progress. I. Rules essential to Paragraph Structure. By the word essential it is not meant that every paragraph must obey all these rules; this cannot be said unqualifiedly, for example, of Rules 95 and 96. Rather, here is pointed out the type, the normal paragraph structure, which, once thoroughly in mind, will be the best guide and regulator not only to general procedure but to exceptions. 94. Make proper connection with what precedes. Not only the parts of a paragraph but the paragraphs of a composition are linked together in one sequence; hence the first thought in constructing any paragraph (after the opening paragraph) is to make a link of connection with what goes before. This connecting link comes at the very beginning as an introduction to the topic sentence; and takes the form of a summary, or more frequently of a connective word or phrase. EXAMPLES. The following beginnings of four paragraphs from Macaulay show how they are connected together, each starting from the main thought of the preceding. 66 Though Bacon did not arm his philosophy with the weapons of logic, he adorned her profusely with all the richest decorations of rhetoric. [Amplified by particulars: eloquence and wit.] "These, however, were freaks in which his ingenuity now and then wantoned, with scarcely any other object than to astonish and amuse. But it occasionally happened that, when he was engaged in grave and profound investigations, his wit obtained the mastery over all his other faculties, and led him into absurdities into which no dull man could possibly have fallen. [Amplified by instances: similitudes used as arguments.] "The truth is, that his mind was wonderfully quick in perceiving analogies of all sorts. But, like several eminent men whom we could name, both living and dead, he sometimes appeared strangely deficient in the power of distinguishing rational from fanciful analogies. [Consequences of such lack of discrimination, in Bacon and others.] 66 Yet, we cannot wish that Bacon's wit had been less luxuriant." [Amplified by showing the usefulness of it.] 95. Devote the first part to topical matter. The beginning, after connection with what precedes is adjusted, is the natural and usual place for the paragraph topic. In the topical matter is included not only the topic sentence itself, when expressed, but whatever is accounted necessary to get it fully before the reader as a subject of consideration. This may include, The topic and its definition, — The topic and its explanation, The topic and any form of repetition, figure, paraphrase, or contrast, designed to give it greater force and fulness. - EXAMPLES. The examples already given will illustrate the placing and inclusion of the paragraph topic. Thus, in the paragraph from Macaulay beginning, "Thus the Puritan was made up of two different men (see Appendix ii. p. 290), the topical matter is comprised in two sentences, of which the second is an explanation of the first. In the second and third of the four paragraphs whose beginnings are cited on page 229 above, the topical matter is stated by a contrast or obverse, the first member introductory to the second, and at the same time preserving connection with the preceding. NOTES. - I. Sometimes the order of topical matter and predicative matter is reversed, after the analogy of a periodic sentence; but while periodic sentences are very common, periodic paragraphs are quite exceptional. They are used with effect when for any reason the writer wishes to keep back an unpalatable or perhaps particularly memorable topic, until the reasons for it are all in. 2. Sometimes the topical matter of a paragraph may be so important that the whole paragraph may be taken up with it. In such a case the topic may be either a proposition to be amplified in succeeding paragraphs (as seen in the short paragraph on page 3 of this book), or a summary of the preceding (as in the second paragraph at the beginning of the present chapter). 96. Put predicative matter after the topical. This of course follows naturally from the foregoing rule, but needs to be said here in order that predicative matter By predicative matter we mean in general whatever enlarges upon, amplifies, the topic. It may be, may be defined. The proof of the topic, The illustration of the topic, The consequence of the topic, |