This passage naturally divides itself into two para graphs, one asking certain questions, the other dwelling upon the difficulty of answering them.

The words "These questions," at the beginning of the second paragraph point back to the first paragraph. They supply the missing link between what precedes and what follows.

I.

Reference is often made to "the child's imagination," as if all children were equally gifted with the power of personifying objects and of changing in fancy their own personality. This supposition is altogether too sweeping; for many children have so little imagination that they look at everything from a severely practical point of view, and many others who join in games in which imagination plays a great part do so almost entirely in imitation of their playmates.

There are children, however, who do not imitate others, but who have imagination, the real actor's instinct, - as when a boy says to his brother, "Play you're a horse, and I'll drive you." With some, this desire to play they are something or somebody else begins at a very early age.

II.

"the

People often refer to child's imagination" as if all children were gifted with the same great powers of personification of objects and fancied changes of personality. This is altogether too sweeping; many children have so little that they look at everything from a severely practical point of view, and many others who join in games where imagination plays a great part, do so almost entirely in imitation of their play

mates.

In some children the desire to "play they are somebody else" begins at a very early age. It is not merely imitation but the real actor's instinct when a boy says to his brother " 'Play you're a horse and I'll drive you."

In this passage as originally written, the connection between the second paragraph and the first is far from plain. By re-arranging the second paragraph, and by inserting "however," we show what the connection really is.

Make every paragraph a UNIT.

Make the transition FROM PARAGRAPH TO PARAGRAPH as plain as possible.

We have seen that a paragraph is something more than a sentence and something less than an essay; and that it is an important means of marking the natural divisions of a composition, and thus making it easier for a reader to understand the composition as a whole. We have seen that in an ideal paragraph the sentences fit into one another as closely as the nature of language permits, and that taken together they constitute a whole. We have seen, too, that an ideal paragraph begins with the word or words that are most closely connected with what precedes, and ends with the word or words that are most closely connected with what follows.

If a paragraph complies with these fundamental requirements, it matters not whether it contain one sentence or twenty. In paragraphs, as in sentences, differences in subject matter and in manner of presentation necessarily result in differences of form; in paragraphs as in sentences, the principle of unity faithfully applied leads to variety.

To write a single sentence in which proper words shall be in proper places is no slight task; to write a single paragraph that shall be good at all points is far from easy: but to write a succession of paragraphs that shall fulfil all the conditions of excellence is what few students of the art of composition can expect to accomplish. It is only by constant practice under intelligent and stimulating criticism, and by constant study of the best work of the best authors, that even moderate success can be achieved.

APPENDIX

I.

GENERAL RULES FOR PUNCTUATION

JUDGMENT determines the relations, whether of thought or of language, which marks of punctuation indicate; taste determines the choice, when good usage admits of a choice, between two modes of indicating those relations: judgment and taste are, therefore, the guides to correct punctuation.

Since punctuation is one of the means by which a writer communicates with his readers, it naturally varies with thought and expression: the punctuation of "Tristram Shandy" will therefore differ from that of "The Rambler ;" and in a less degree the punctuation of Burke's Orations, from that of Macaulay's Essays. Hence no one writer-even were books printed correctly, as is rarely the case can be taken as a model. Hence, too, a system of rules loaded with exceptions, though founded upon the best usage and framed with the greatest care, is as likely to fetter thought as to aid in its communication.

Assistance may, however, be obtained from a few simple. rules founded upon the principle that the purpose of every point is to indicate to the eye the construction of the sentence in which it occurs, a principle which is best illustrated by examples of sentences correctly constructed as well as correctly punctuated. One who knows few rules, but who has mastered the fundamental principles of construction, will punctuate far better than one who slavishly follows a set of formulas. The latter will

not know how to act in a case not provided for in any formula: the former will readily understand that the letter of a rule may be violated, in order to give effect to its spirit; that ambiguity and obscurity should, above all things, be avoided; and that marks of punctuation which are required on principle may be omitted when they are disagreeable to the eye or confusing to the mind.

Some rules are common to spoken and to written discourse: but the former is directed to the ear, the latter to the eye; and the pauses required by the ear or the voice do not always correspond with the stops required by the eye. A speaker is often obliged to pause between words which should not be separated by marks of punctuation; or he is carried by the current of emotion over places at which marks of punctuation would be indispensable: he has inflection, emphasis, gesture, in addition to pauses, to aid him in doing what the writer has to do with stops alone.

A slight knowledge of punctuation suffices to show the absurdity of the old rules, that a reader should pause at a comma long enough to count one, at a semicolon long enough to count two, and at a colon long enough to count three. The truth is that, in some of the most common cases in which a comma is necessary, a speaker would make no pause. For example:

No, sir.

Thank you, sir.

On the other hand, sentences often occur in which a comma can at no point be properly inserted, but which no one can read without making one or more pauses before the end. For example:

The art of letters is the method by which a writer brings out in words the thoughts which impress him.

I lately heard a man of thought and energy contrasting the modern want of ardor and movement with what he remembered in his own youth.

The great use of a college education is to teach a boy how to rely on himself.