Composition-Rhetoric Part 16

This faculty of organization shows itself in what we technically name structure; and logical and rhetorical structure may be studied at their very best in his work. His essays are perfect units, made up of many parts, systems within systems, that play together without clog or friction. You can take them apart like a watch and put them together again. But try to rearrange the parts and the mechanism is spoiled. Each essay has its subdivisions, which in turn are groups of paragraphs. And each paragraph is a unit. Take the first paragraph of the essay on Milton: the word _ma.n.u.script_ appears in the first sentence, and it reappears in the last; clearly the paragraph deals with a single very definite topic.

And so with all. Of course the unity manifests itself in a hundred ways, but it is rarely wanting. Most frequently it takes the form of an expansion of a topic given in the first sentence, or a preparation for a topic to be announced only in the last. These initial and final sentences-- often in themselves both aphoristic and memorable--serve to mark with the utmost clearness the different stages in the progress of the essay.

Ill.u.s.tration is of more incidental service, but as used by Macaulay becomes highly organic. For his ill.u.s.trations are not farfetched or laboriously worked out. They seem to be of one piece with his story or his argument. His mind was quick to detect resemblances and a.n.a.logies. He was ready with a comparison for everything, sometimes with half a dozen. For example, Addison's essays, he has occasion to say, were different every day of the week, and yet, to his mind, each day like something--like Horace, like Lucian, like the "Tales of Scheherezade." He draws long comparisons between Walpole and Townshend, between Congreve and Wycherley, between Ess.e.x and Villiers, between the fall of the Carlovingians and the fall of the Moguls. He follows up a general statement with swarms of instances. Have historians been given to exaggerating the villainy of Machiavelli? Macaulay can name you half a dozen who did so. Did the writers of Charles's faction delight in making their opponents appear contemptible? "They have told us that Pym broke down in a speech, that Ireton had his nose pulled by Hollis, that the Earl of Northumberland cudgeled Henry Marten, that St. John's manners were sullen, that Vane had an ugly face, that Cromwell had a red nose." Do men fail when they quit their own province for another? Newton failed thus; Bentley failed; Inigo Jones failed; Wilkie failed. In the same way he was ready with quotations.

He writes in one of his letters: "It is a dangerous thing for a man with a very strong memory to read very much. I could give you three or four quotations this moment in support of that proposition; but I will bring the vicious propensity under subjection, if I can." Thus we see his mind doing instantly and involuntarily what other minds do with infinite pains, bringing together all things that have a likeness or a common bearing.

It is precisely these talents that set Macaulay among the simplest and clearest of writers, and that accounts for much of his popularity. People found that in taking up one of his articles they simply read on and on, never puzzling over the meaning of a sentence, getting the exact force of every statement, and following the trend of thought with scarcely a mental effort. And his natural gift of making things plain he took pains to support by various devices. He constructed his sentences after the simplest normal fashion, subject and verb and object, sometimes inverting for emphasis, but rarely complicating, and always reducing expression to the barest terms. He could write, for example, "One advantage the chaplain had," but it is impossible to conceive of his writing, "Now, amid all the discomforts and disadvantages with which the unfortunate chaplain was surrounded, there was one thing which served to offset them, and which, if he chose to take the opportunity of enjoying it, might well be regarded as a positive advantage." One will search his pages in vain for loose, trailing clauses and involved constructions. His vocabulary was of the same simple nature. He had a complete command of ordinary English and contented himself with that. He rarely ventured beyond the most abridged dictionary. An occasional technical term might be required, but he was shy of the unfamiliar. He would coin no words and he would use no archaisms.

Foreign words, when fairly naturalized, he employed sparingly. "We shall have no disputes about diction," he wrote to Napier, Jeffrey's successor; "the English language is not so poor but that I may very well find in it the means of contenting both you and myself."

_B._ Recite upon some topic taken from your other lessons for the day. Let the cla.s.s tell what method of development you have used.

_C._ Make a collection of well-written paragraphs ill.u.s.trating each of the methods of development.

+Theme XXIX.+--_Write two paragraphs using the same topic statement, but developing each by a different method._

Suggested topic statements:--

1. The princ.i.p.al tools of government are buildings, guns, and money.

2. The civilized world was never so orderly as now.

3. Law suits take time, especially in cities; sometimes they take years.

4. There is a difference between law and justice.

5. We cry for a mult.i.tude of reasons of surprising variety.

6. In the growth of a child nothing is more surprising than his ceaseless activity.

7. Education for the children of a nation is a benefit to the whole nation.

(Have you said what you intended to say? What methods of development have you used? Is the main thought of the two paragraphs the same even though they begin with the same sentence?)

SUMMARY

1. Language is (1) a means of expressing ideas, and (2) a medium through which ideas are acquired.

2. The acquisition of ideas by means of language requires:-- _a._ That we know the meanings of words, and so avoid forming incomplete images (Section 27) and incomplete thoughts (Section 33).

_b._ That we understand the relations in thought existing among words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and paragraphs (Section 32).

3. Ideas acquired through language may be used for composition purposes-- _a._ Provided we form complete and accurate images and do not confuse the image with the language that suggested it (Section 28).

_b._ Provided we make the main thoughts so thoroughly our own that we can furnish details and instances, originate comparisons, or state causes and effects, and thus become able to describe them or explain them, or prove them to others (Section 52).

Until both _a_ and _b_ as stated above are done, ideas acquired through language are undesirable for composition purposes.

4. Comparisons aid in the forming of correct images. They may be literal or imaginative. If imaginative, they become figures of speech.

5. Figures of speech. (Complete list in the Appendix.) _a._ A simile is a direct comparison.

_b._ A metaphor is an implied comparison.

_c._ Personification is a modified metaphor, a.s.signing human attributes to objects, abstract ideas, or the lower animals.

6. Suggestions as to the use of figures of speech.

_a._ Never write for the purpose of using them.

_b._ They should be appropriate to the subject.

_c._ One of the two things compared must be familiar to the reader.

_d._ Avoid hackneyed figures.

_e._ Avoid long figures.

_f._ Avoid mixed metaphors.

7. Choice of words.

_a._ Use words presumably familiar to the reader.

_b._ Use words that express your exact meaning. Do not confuse similar words.

_e._ Avoid the frequent use of the same word (Section 17).

8. Ambiguity of thought must be avoided. Care must be exercised in the use of the forms which show relations in thought between sentences, especially with p.r.o.nouns and p.r.o.nominal adjectives (Section 36).

9. A paragraph is a group of sentences related to each other and to one central idea.

10. The topic statement of a paragraph is a brief comprehensive summary of the contents of the paragraph.

11. Methods of paragraph development. A paragraph may be developed-- _a._ By giving specific instances (Section 44).

_b._ By giving details (Section 45). The order in which the details are told may be determined by-- (1) The order of their occurrence in time (Section 46).

(2) Their position in s.p.a.ce (Section 47).

_c._ By comparison or contrast (Section 48).

_d._ By stating cause and effect (Section 49).

_e._ By repet.i.tion (Section 50).

_f._ By any suitable combination of the methods stated above.

12. The topical recitation demands-- _a._ That the pupil get the central idea of the paragraph and be able to make the topic statement.

_b._ That he be able to determine the relative importance of the remaining ideas in the paragraph.

_c._ That he know by which of the five methods named above the paragraph has been developed.

_d._ That he be able to furnish details, instances, and comparisons of his own. (See Sections 37, 38, 39, 52, 53.)

IV. THE PURPOSE OF EXPRESSION

+54. Kinds of Composition.+--When considered with reference to the purpose in the mind of the writer, there are two general cla.s.ses of writing,--that which informs, and that which entertains. The language that we use should make our meaning clear, arouse interest, and give vividness.

Writing that informs will lay greatest emphasis on clearness, though it may at the same time be interesting and vivid. We do not add to the value of an explanation by making it dull. On the other hand, writing that entertains, though it must be clear, will lay greater emphasis on interest and vividness. That language is best which combines all three of these characteristics. The writer's purpose will determine to which the emphasis shall be given.

Composition is also divided into description, narration, exposition, and argument (including persuasion). These are called forms of discourse. It will be found that this division is also based upon the purpose for which the composition is written. You have occasion to use each of these forms of discourse daily; you describe, you narrate, you explain, you argue, you persuade. You have used language for these purposes from your infancy, and you are now studying composition in order to acquire facility and effectiveness in that use. When this chapter is completed, you will have considered each of the four forms of discourse in an elementary way. A more extended treatment is given in later chapters.

EXERCISES