1. And I say that the English reliance on our religious organizations and on their ideas of human perfection, just as they stand, is like our reliance on freedom, on muscular Christianity, on population, on coal, on wealth, - mere belief in machinery, and unfruitful; and that it is wholesomely counteracted by culture, bent on seeing things as they are, and on drawing the human race onward to a more complete, or harmonious perfection. 2. Culture, however, shows its single-minded love of perfection, its desire simply to make reason and the will of God prevail, its freedom from fanaticism, by its attitude toward all this machinery, even while it insists that it is machinery. MATTHEW ARNOLD: Sweetness and Light. From a study of the foregoing passages it is clear that certain laws govern the structure of paragraphs in a theme. A paragraph may be long or short but must always be a complete unit of thought coherently connected with the other paragraphs in a composition. EXERCISE Write short themes, making transitions in each of the ways noted above. 1. An account of an excursion down the river. In introducing each new paragraph discuss a new part of the scenery you saw. 2. The reasons why I like my friend. Give at least four reasons, beginning each paragraph with first, second, third, and fourth reason, respectively. 3. How Tom and I gathered chestnuts. State how Tom got a stick and struck some branches while you picked up the nuts, then tell how you took his place. 4. My courses in the High School. Explain to a cousin what studies you take, describing each study in a separate paragraph. EXERCISE State how each of the following paragraphs is developed. Has each its topic sentence? summary sentence? Has each a 1. To sum up; Chivalry taught the world the duty of noble service willingly rendered. It upheld courage and enterprise in obedience to rule, it consecrated military prowess to the service of the Church, glorified the virtues of liberality, good faith, unselfishness and courtesy, and above all, courtesy to women. Against these may be set the vices of pride, ostentation, love of bloodshed, contempt of inferiors, and loose manners. Chivalry was an imperfect discipline, but it was a discipline, and one fit for the times. It may have existed in the world too long: it did not come into existence too early and with all its shortcomings it exercised a great and wholesome influence in raising the medieval world from barbarism to civilization. F. WARRE CORNISH: Chivalry. 2. Closely akin to this use of figures is Newman's generous use of examples and illustrations. Whatever be the principle he is discussing, he is never content till he has realized it for his reader in tangible, visible form, until he has given it the cogency and intensity of appeal that only sensations or images possess. In all these ways, then, by his idiomatic and colloquial phrasing, by his specific vocabulary, by his delicately adroit use of metaphors, by his carefully elaborated imagery, and by his wealth of examples and illustrations, Newman keeps resolutely close to the concrete, and imparts everywhere to his style warmth, vividness, color, convincing actuality. LEWIS E. GATES: Preface to Selections from Newman. 3. In politeness, as in many other things connected with the formation of character, people in general begin outside, when they should begin inside; instead of beginning with the heart, and trusting that to form the manners, they begin with the manners, and trust the heart to chance influences. The golden rule contains the very life and soul of politeness. Children may be taught to make a graceful courtesy, or a gentlemanly bow; but unless they have likewise been taught to abhor what is selfish, and always prefer another's comfort and pleasure to their own, their politeness will be entirely artificial, and used only when it is their interest to use it. On the other hand, a truly benevolent, kind-hearted person will always be distinguished for what is called native politeness, though entirely ignorant of the conventional forms of society. LYDIA MARIA CHILD: Letters. - 4. For indeed the fact is that there are idle poor and idle rich; and there are busy poor and busy rich. Many a beggar is as lazy as if he had ten thousand a year; and many a man of large fortune is busier than his errandboy, and never would think of stopping in the street to play marbles. So that, in a large view, the distinction between workers and idlers, as between knaves and honest men, runs through the very heart and innermost economies of men of all ranks and in all positions. There is a working class strong and happy among both rich and poor; there is an idle class-weak, wicked, and miserable among both rich and poor, and the worst of the misunderstandings arising between the two orders come of the unlucky fact that the wise of one class habitually contemplate the foolish of the other. If the busy rich people watched and rebuked the idle rich people, all would be right; and if the busy poor people watched and rebuked the idle poor people, all would be right. But each class has a tendency to look for the faults of the other. A hard-working man of property is particularly offended by an idle beggar; and an orderly, but poor, workman is naturally intolerant of the licentious luxury of the rich. And what is severe judgment in the minds of just men of either class, becomes fierce enmity in the unjust -but among the unjust only. None but the dissolute among the poor look upon the rich as their natural enemies, or desire to pillage their houses and divide their property. None but the dissolute among the rich speak in opprobrious terms of the vices and follies of the poor. JOHN RUSKIN: The Crown of Wild Olive. CHAPTER XIII EXPOSITION Purpose of Exposition. Description deals with concrete subjects; exposition, with those that are abstract, seeking to make ideas clear. Exposition may be seen in various forms: the simplest is the explanation of some word, such as we find in the dictionary; the most complex is the explanation of some abstract theory, such as we find in James' The Will to Believe. Every day of our lives we are asked to explain something which another person does not understand; it may be you are asked why you enjoy stories of adventure, or why you want to go to college. Such instances of exposition require on your part a statement of your personal preferences. You expound your views on these subjects, and you attempt to make some other person understand what you think. A stranger may ask to be directed to a certain street in your native town; you give him directions, which act represents a kind of exposition. You are often asked to tell someone about your course of study in the high school, or to make clear to a visitor what the arrangement of rooms in your house is, or to inform a friend what method of train |