progress of the race

such things as iron and oil - do not belong to the entire race rather than to any one group of men.

Although such a vast question is not easily settled, involving as it does the general question of individualism and communism, the right of the individual to the products of his labor and his intellectual powers, and being complicated by the fact that certain of the greatest monopolists of this country are men of generosity, high character, and conscientious convictions, there can be no doubt that the public is intensely interested in the right settling of the problem, whether by wise regulation of trusts, or by the more radical and as yet untried, method of public purchase of certain so-called natural monopolies.

Examine your

EXERCISE 32. (Written.) themes to discover any paragraph which consists of but one long, involved sentence. If you find such a sentence-paragraph, break it up into several short statements - not mechani

cally, but recasting the whole as a coherent group of sentences, coherently joined with the neighboring paragraphs. Observe that these directions do not apply to all long sentences, but only to any one that you may have paragraphed by itself. If you find no such paragraph, then this exercise requires no written work of you.

§ 4. Proportion of Parts in the Paragraph. In Section 2 of this chapter we saw that every

• section and paragraph of a composition should have bulk according to its importance. The same is true of the main parts of a paragraph, though these are not indicated by any numeral or indention. Each of these unmarked divisions should have many words or few, many sentences or few, according to its importance. You will perhaps think that we are carrying this matter of proportion down to rather fine distinctions, but you will admit that the principle applies in theory; and though it will not always be worth your while to worry about arithmetic in the proportioning of paragraph parts, there is a practical side to the matter. If the average student were telling the story of the following paragraph, the chances are that he would consume twice the time in getting to the interesting part as did the trained journalist who wrote it. See how the four stages, indicated by the vertical lines, increase in length according to their relative importance.

Quite as instructive, and even more picturesque, was the example set by Levi P. Morton, after he failed heavily in the dry-goods business, a number of years ago. | The crash was unexpected, too. He had established an excellent commercial reputation, one which had given him an insight into banking, and to this industry he next turned his attention. In a little notebook which he car

L

ried, he kept the name of each creditor, the amount for which he had compromised, and the full amount which he should have received. | One day, when most of the debts had been forgotten or charged up to profit and loss, and when Mr. Morton had earned a snug sum as a banker, the former creditors were invited to a banquet. A date was set some little time ahead of the invitations, and Mr. Morton made it a point to call on each expected guest and urge him to dine with him at the appointed place. Each man supposed that he was to be the only guest, for the host said nothing of his real purpose. Great was the surprise, therefore, when a large company assembled; but greater still was the sensation when every guest found, under his plate, a certified check for the amount still due him, together with full interest. ELLERY OGDEN, in Success.

Examine the paragraph by Mr. Roosevelt, p. 128, and comment on the relative amount of space given to each sub-topic of the paragraph. Do the same with Thoreau's long paragraph, p. 132.

EXERCISE 33. (Written.) Examine each paragraph of your themes with reference to the proportion of its parts. Contract or expand as much as may be necessary to give each part the number of words due its importance.

§ 5. Junction of Paragraphs.

That "connec

tion is the soul of good writing" is even truer of connection between paragraphs than of con

nection between sections. The harder the subject, the more pains must be taken to indicate the close logical sequence of each part upon that which stood before it.

A transitional sentence sometimes indicates merely the change to a new sub-topic; but, since human memories are short, is is often advisable to make it a summary of the preceding paragraph, plus the topic of the new. Most paragraphs, particularly expository paragraphs, have a topic sentence; and this should if possible be framed so as to look both forward and backward; for example: "We not only wanted to attempt the expedition, as I have just explained, but we wanted to do it in the following way.” The great variety of possible transitions may be guessed at from the few specimens given below.

Narration:

2. The next thing we did was to climb the bell-tower. ¶ 3. After our descent, we again entered the cathedral, to study further the interior.

4. Although we found the interior of the duomo so wonderful, we were wearied out at last, and glad to escape into the freedom of the square.

Description :

¶ 2. But this is not the only beautiful part of the island. 3. So much for the southern shore.

4. Less graceful, perhaps, but more picturesque is the western side.

¶ 5. There are no cliffs in any other part of the place, but there are bright, sandy slopes that children love. Exposition :

¶ 2. A better way of starting is to get a friend to help you mount.

¶ 3. There is still another, though not a better, way of learning to mount. It was devised for lazy people. ¶4. When the art of mounting is mastered, the next important principle is to keep pedalling.

¶ 5. Whether, then, you succeed or fail in this point, you must not forget the cardinal doctrine of all, keep cool.

¶ 6. Nevertheless, the actual dangers of bicycling are less than might be inferred from what has just been said. ¶ 7. At the same time there are other dangers besides those resulting from accident.

8. Hence a person of weak heart must be content with short rides.

9. If this injunction is not obeyed, mischief is sure to follow.

10. But this is not all.

¶ 11. These warnings are not numerous, nor hard to remember.

12. Moreover, warnings are never to be taken too anxiously.

¶ 13. Let us, therefore, give ourselves up to the honest pleasures of wheeling.

A device of connection capable of much abuse, but in fact rarely abused, is the use of repeated words or paragraph echoes,1 which carry the mind back to the topic of the former paragraph.

1 The phrase "echo words" is Professor J. M. Hart's. Handbook of English Composition, pp. 14, 31.