2. Emphasis. In the whole composition emphasis prescribes that important ideas should occupy prominent places. With this result in view the pupil should bear in mind the following hints:

(a) Treat at length what is important or significant. Pass rapidly over or omit entirely what is relatively unimportant or insignificant. Many a theme, for instance, which purports to give an account of a day's fishing is spoiled because the writer expends four-fifths of his time and space in relating how he got up and off in the morning, and leaves only a remnant of them for the more important part of his narrative. Many a theme on the life of Napoleon, or some other historical character, has proved worthless because the writer has wasted his strength on the insignificant details of his subject's childhood instead of economizing rigorously on time and space in order to state adequately the important facts of his manhood and great career.

(b) Let your beginning indicate clearly what your subject is and how you mean to treat it. The two following examples will show plainly how explicit such indications may be:

"I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory of men still living. I shall recount the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the title of

the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the new settlement was. during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement, the authority of law and the security of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual action never before known; how, from the auspicious union of order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a state of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of umpire among Euro-. pean powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble. ties of interest and affection; how, in America, the British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realms which Cortez and Pizarro had added to the dominions of Charles the Fifth; how, in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander."- Macaulay: "History of England," opening sentences.

"For twenty-six years the Negro has had his freedom, and now the question is, What use has he made of it? I have just returned from an extended trip through the South, arranged and made solely for the purpose of getting an answer to the question, What is the colored man doing for himself? I have travelled through Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, returning through Tennessee, the District of Columbia, and Maryland. In the course of this journey, covering thirty-five

hundred miles, I have visited schools, colleges, and industrial institutions in most of the large centres of the South, from Baltimore to New Orleans. I have gone through the Black Belt, inspected the agricultural districts, visited farms and cabins, and have seen every phase of Negro life, from the destitution of the one-room cabin to the homes of the comfortable and prosperous, and every degree of social standing, from the convicts in the chain-gang in the New Orleans Parish Prison and the Birmingham mines, to ministers, lawyers, doctors, and bankers on the top round of the social ladder. As a result of this observation and experience, I have some clearly-defined impressions and some interesting evidence as to what the Negro is doing for himself." - Samuel J. Barrows: "What the Southern Negro is Doing for Himself," opening sentences.1

(c) Look no less carefully to the end than to the beginning. Be sure that the reader leaves your work with a clear idea of what your main points are.

"To sum up, then, the facts which show what the Negro is doing for himself, it is clear that the new generation of Afric-Americans is animated by a progressive spirit. They are raising and following their own leaders. They are rapidly copying the organic, industrial, and administrative features of white society. They have discovered that industrial redemption is not to be found in legislative and political measures. In spite of oppressive usury and extortion, the colored man is buying farms, accumulating property, establishing himself in trade, learning the mechanic arts, devising inventions, and entering the professions. Education he sees to be the pathway to prosperity, and is making immense sacrifices to secure it. He is

1 "Atlantic Monthly," June, 1891.

passing into the higher states of social evolution. In religion, the old-timer' is giving way to the educated preacher. Religion is becoming more ethical. The colored people are doing much to take care of their own unfortunate classes. The co-operative spirit is slowly spreading through trades-unions, building associations, and benevolent guilds. In no way is the colored man doing more for himself than by silently and steadily developing a sense of self-respect, new capacity for self-support, and a pride in his race, which, more than anything else, secure for him the respect and fraternal feeling of his white neighbors." "What the Southern Negro is Doing for Himself," closing sentences.

3. Coherence. Coherence of the whole composition is strictly analogous to coherence of the sentence and of the paragraph. Bind your words together logically into sentences, bind your sentences together logically into paragraphs, bind your paragraphs together logically into the whole composition. The only quality indispensable in serious writing is order. As the chief aim of all composition is usually to tell the reader something which he presumably did not know before, it is obvious that to impart to him this new information you will do well to begin where you and the reader have some knowledge in common, and then lead him by consecutive logical stages to that which he is to understand. For that purpose it is absolutely necessary that your work be carefully planned. You can no more write successfully without a definite conception of what the structure of your composition is to be than an architect

can build without having in mind a well-defined and well-organized structure.1

EXERCISE XI.

I. Criticise the subject-matter and the title of the following theme:

""TIS BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE."

"A little brook once started on its way, a tiny little thread of silver, so small that a man's hand could change its course or stop it altogether. Near it lay a large pond whose glassy waters shone in the sunlight. As the brook hastened on, the pond called out in a lazy, indolent voice, as its waves lapped the shore: 'Here, you brook, let me give you a little advice. Don't rush on so fast. You are wasting all your waters, and when the scorching heat comes on, and the crops are all blasted, and wells are dried, and even I feel extremely uncomfortable you will entirely disappear. Do as I do. Stay where you are, and take all that the rains and fogs give you, and then when a time of drought comes you will not be drained dry.'

"Then the little stream answered, with a gurgle of unselfish delight: 'But until the drought comes I shall flow on, and as far as I can I will cool the parched earth, and give to the thirsty to drink; and then when the withering heat comes I shall not have lived in vain.' And the brook went on, leaving the pond to its own sluggish ease.

1 It is obviously impossible to give, in short space, examples under this head. For illustration, the student should examine carefully, under the direction of the instructor, (1) some well-ordered, serious article from a current review, (2) the table of contents and general structure of a carefully planned larger work, - Mr. Bryce's "The American Commonwealth," for instance.