BOOK THIRD.

PART FIRST.

INVENTION-RESUME D.

CHAPTER XVII.

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHING.

HITHERTO the descriptions and narrations required of the pupil have been those pertaining to his own experience, or such as might have been his. He is now to be led into a different field, the field of history. He must learn to give a comprehensive view of facts beyond his own actual observation, and to describe objects, scenes, and events, more or less known to all acquainted with literature.

The great danger in this exercise is the actual surrender of all originality. As the exercise necessarily compels the pupil to look into books for his facts, and even for their relations and characterization, he will be tempted to copy, either by the eye or the memory, the very thoughts and phraseology of his authorities. To prevent this, the following plan, approved by long trial, is recommended.

Let the subject be selected, and a sufficient time allowed for the pupils that compose the class to inform themselves concerning it. By a certain day each is required to present a number of questions, calling for any facts or opinions in connection with the subject. These questions are collated by the teacher, the duplicates cast out, and all the rest distributed, without reference to their authorship, among the pupils. Each will thus receive a certain number of questions, the answers to which he must prepare by an appointed day. On that day the class is convened for the hearing of these answers, and for the interchange of views which the questions and answers may elicit. By this means the subject receives a pretty thorough discussion; the knowledge concerning it is made common stock; the ideas and views which each one entertains are loosened from the text of the authorities, and begin to assume the freedom and vigor of digested knowledge.

Immediately upon the close of this discussion, or it may be at some other appointed hour, the class, in the presence of the teacher, proceed to write out their views on the subject, giving any form to the composition, either narrative, essay, or letter, as he may choose to require. These compositions are then to be subjected to the processes of criticism, correction, re-writing, etc., as heretofore prescribed. As good subjects for such exercises the following list is given, which might be extended indefinitely. The character of—

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DRAWING OF PARALLELS.

It will greatly add to the interest and disciplinary power of such an exercise as the foregoing, to embrace in one discussion and composition two characters or historical passages that have some points of resemblance. The bringing out into prominence the points of similarity and of dissimilarity is called drawiny a parallel between the two.

The following list will afford examples of pairs of subjects to be thus treated:

Geography and History.

Spring and Autumn.

The East and the West Indies.

The Valley of the Danube and of the Ohio.

The Alps and the Andes.

The Ganges and the Mississippi.

The Bedouin Arabs and the American Indians.

The Irish and the Scotch.

The Dutch and the Ancient Greeks.

The English and the French.

Moses and Romulus.

Samson and Hercules.

David and Alfred.

Zenobia and Mary, Queen of Scots.
Charlemagne and Peter the Great.
Julius Cæsar and Louis Napoleon.
Addison and Johnson.

Goldsmith and Irving.

Macaulay and Gibbon.

Webster and Calhoun.

The Growth of Popular Freedom in Rome and in England.
The Spanish Conquests in America and the British in India
The Reformation in Germany and in England.

Christianity and Mohammedanism.

Ancient and Modern Warfare.

Grecian and Gothic Architecture.

The Poet and the Orator.

The Preacher and the Editor.

PART SECOND.

EXPRESSION-RESUMED.

CHAPTER XIX.

STRUCTURE-UNITY.

§ 314. The essential properties of good style that refer to the structure of sentences are five:

1. Unity;

2. Purity;
3. Clearness;

4. Strength;

5. Harmony or Euphony.

The first of these has reference to the quantity of a continuous discourse which may properly be embraced in one sentence; the second relates to the demands of grammar on style; the other three all refer to the mode of arranging the words.

I. SENTENTIAL UNITY.

§ 315. This property of good style requires that no more should be embraced in one sentence than the mind can easily apprehend at once.

Strict unity would demand that each sentence should have one leading subject, and present only one scene before the mind. And this is what is required in every simple, complex, and partial compound sentence. With regard to such, it is rare that any practical difficulty occurs. But with regard to loose compound sentences, usage does sanction the grouping together of events and assertions that have not a very close connection or inter

dependence. Here it is that the judgment and taste of the writer must be trained, so as to avoid, on one hand, a dangling and wearisome succession of clauses, or, on the other, the chopping of a discourse into a series of detached propositions. Rules alone are insufficient for this training. The teacher should, in the presence of his pupils, criticise some extract either of good or faulty style, taking up sentence after sentence, and examining each, to test its merits in respect to unity. The pupil should be encouraged to do likewise with his own compositions. This, together with the abundant and careful reading of good authors, and the occasional memorizing of remarkably fine passages, will most infallibly inculcate a nice discrimination as to the structure of sentences.

§ 316. The following are given as special rules for the application of the foregoing principle.

§ 317. I. It is not proper to bring into one sentence, different events, scenes, or assertions, unless they have an obvious connection.

§ 318. II. The common object or idea that forms the bond of union between different assertions, must occupy such a position in the sentence as that all the clauses may naturally group themselves around it.

§ 319. III. It is seldom agreeable to put together into one sentence, assertions that tend to awaken different tones of feeling.

§ 320. IV. Long parentheses, or interposed clauses that lead away the mind from the main assertion, are always destructive of unity.

§ 321. V. The unity of a sentence requires that it should be brought to a full and perfect close, and that no after-thought be added, beyond the point where the structure of the sentence would lead us to expect a pause.