6. Condition of the teachers in the three schools:

(a) Mr. Feeder.

(b) Mr. Mell.

(c) Nicholas Nickleby.

7. Truthfulness of Dickens's caricatures.

8. Reforms effected by these caricatures.

The principle on which this plan is now for the most part arranged is the principle of cause and effect: 2 and 3 are the causes of 4, 5, and 6; 5 is the immediate effect of 4; 8 is a result of 7. When two or more facts are related as cause and effect they are brought near together in the plan.

18. Grouping by Contiguity. Often in revising notes for a plan, we cannot detect any relation of cause and effect, but still we see the need of a better order. We bring two topics next to each other simply because one suggests the other; the two topics seem to touch each other as we think about them. This principle of arrangement is by contiguity, or, as it is sometimes called, association. Thus in the last plan given we feel that the relationship between 1 and 2 is close, though it

is not a relationship of cause and effect so far as we can see. Likewise there is no relationship of cause and effect between 5 and 6; yet 6 is naturally suggested by 5. Number 7 is placed after 4, 5, and 6, because it answers a question that naturally suggests itself after the facts about the schools have been given, though the relationship is not cause and effect.

Arrangement by contiguity is most obvious when the topics are events. Here we adopt the time order, because in that order the events are naturally connected. It may happen, too, that this order will here and there reveal plainly the relation of cause and effect also. The order of contiguity appears almost as plainly when we are preparing to write about objects in space. Here we plan to take up the objects one after another as they are seen by the spectator: first the most conspicuous objects in the order of their nearness to one another, with the details of each; then the less conspicuous, in the same order, with the details of each. The details that are near one another will be brought in so as to indicate their nearness.

In like manner ideas, as well as objects and events, are often arranged on the principle of contiguity because they are felt to be near one another. One's first notes of an article on the character of John Quincy Adams might include remarks upon : (1) his industry, (2) his political heroism, (3) his conscientiousness, (4) his energy. In rearranging these before writing, one would be almost certain to exchange the places of 2 and 4, so as to bring the topics, industry and energy, close together. They are felt to be closer to each other in thought than they are to the other two topics.

19. Grouping by Contrast or Antithesis. — A third principle of arrangement is used when ideas are in contrast, or antithesis. One about to discuss some of the characters of Thackeray's Vanity Fair and having made notes of (1) Becky Sharp's cleverness, avarice, selfishness, self-reliance, (2) Joseph Sedley's weakness, respectability, (3) Amelia Sedley's unselfishness, lack of firmness, lack of self-reliance, (4) Rawdon Crawley's reckless manner of living, true manliness, would in all probability see the advantage of adopting an order that would bring into relief the striking contrast between Becky and Amelia, and between Joseph and Crawley, as well as the contrasted characteristics of each person; thus:

A. The two women contrasted:

1. Becky Sharp

(a) Selfishness, avarice, cleverness.
(b) Firmness of character, self-reliance.

2. Amelia Sedley

(a) Unselfishness, lack of cleverness.
(b) Lack of firmness and self-reliance.

B. The two men contrasted:

1. Joseph Sedley

(a) Weakness.

(b) Respectability.

2. Rawdon Crawley

(a) Reckless manner of living.

(b) True manliness.

Not all contrasts can be made so striking as those just given; but it is a general principle that where a contrast exists the arrangement of the topics should show it.

All three principles of arrangement (cause and effect, contiguity, contrast) are often employed in planning a single piece of writing. Thus in the plan of Carlyle's Essay on Burns, the first half of which is presented quite fully, below, we notice that the first topic of the introduction suggests the second by contiguity, the second and third are in antithesis, and so are the third and fourth. The two main topics of the discussion — Burns the Poet and Burns the Man - show a contrast that is worked out in the essay. The topics under I (a, b, c, d, e) are arranged by contiguity. This is easily seen by changing the order (making it d, b, c, a, e, for instance), whereupon greater gaps between successive topics are at once detected. Of the topics under C, 2 follows 1 in the order of cause and effect, as Carlyle tells us in the essay, and 3 is also, in reality, an effect of 1, although Carlyle does not tell us so. Topics 4 and 5 are in antithesis or contrast. Topics 4 and 5 follow the preceding topics by contiguity. The only other place where they might stand would be before 1; but this is impossible since Carlyle makes 1 the fundamental excellence. Contrasts are numerous

in the topics of lowest grade.

CARLYLE'S ESSAY ON BURNS.

A. Introduction:

I. Reason for writing the Essay: Lockhart's Burns

has appeared.

II. Shortcomings of former biographers.

III. Excellent qualities of Lockhart's Burns.

IV. Lockhart's failure to answer the fundamental question: What was the effect of the world on Burns, and of Burns on the world?

B. Discussion:

I. Burns the poet:

a. One of the most considerable British poets of his century:

1. The quantity of his work small but his accomplishment great:

(a) In view of its character,

(b) In view of the difficulties Burns surmounted:

(1) Lack of models.

(2) Lack of education.
(3) Poverty.

b. Nature's gift to Burns:

1. Sympathy for nature - Daisy, To a Mouse. 2. Sympathy for man A Man's a Man for

2. Originality in choice of subjects:

(a) Burns writes of the familiar and of the near at hand-contrast with conventional poetry.