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He is perhaps aware of the fact that everything he says in his composition should have some relation to the subject he is writing upon, but he is seldom aware of the equally important fact that all the statements or assertions he makes with regard to this subject should be arranged in groups according to their relation to each other.

26. Classification.-The main function of the paragraph is, as we have seen, to serve as a means of developing the topics of the discourse. Occasionally, however, it performs other offices. It serves as a means of bringing the subject of the composition to the attention of the reader. Again, it is used as a device for passing from one to another of the larger divisions of the subject. It is used, also, in dialogue to distinguish the remarks of one character from those of another. Hence, taking the office which they perform in the discourse as the basis of classification, we may distinguish four more or less clearly defined kinds of paragraphs: (1) the normal, or developing paragraph; (2) the introductory paragraph; (3) the transitional paragraph; (4) the conventional paragraph,— the paragraph used in dialogue to differentiate the various speakers.

The normal or developing paragraph is the only one which has any very regular form or structure. The others are more or less loosely constructed, and may be regarded as abnormal types.

Illustrations of all four kinds may be seen in the following passages:

(1) If a well were to be sunk at our feet in the midst of the city of Norwich, the diggers would very soon find themselves at work in that white substance, almost too soft to be called rock, with which we are all familiar as "chalk."

Thus the chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's crust, and it impresses a peculiar stamp, varying with the conditions to which it is exposed, on the scenery of the districts in which it occurs. The undulating downs and rounded coombs, covered with sweet-grassed turf, of our inland chalk country, have a peacefully domestic and muttonsuggesting prettiness, but can hardly be called either grand or beautiful. But on our southern coasts the wall-sided cliffs, many hundred feet high, with vast needles and pinnacles standing out in the sea, sharp and solitary enough to serve as perches for the wary cormorant, confer a wonderful beauty and grandeur upon the chalk headlands. And in the East chalk has its share in the formation of some of the most venerable of mountain ranges, such as the Lebanon.

What is this widespread component of the surface of the earth? and whence did it come? 1

1

(2) "Look there," said Reynal, pointing out of the opening of his lodge; "do you see that line of buttes about fifteen miles off? Well, now do you see that farthest one, with the white speck on the face of it? Do you think you ever saw it before?"

"It looks to me," said I, "like the hill that we were camped under when we were on Laramie Creek, six or eight weeks ago."

"You've hit it," answered Reynal.

"Go and bring in the animals, Raymond," said I; “we'll camp there to-night, and start for the fort 'n the morning."

1 T. H. Huxley, On a Piece of Chalk.

2 Parkman, The Oregon Trail.

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In the first passage the opening paragraph is purely introductory; it serves merely to indicate what is to be the subject of the lecture. The paragraph following is a normal or developing paragraph. Its topic is, chalk is no unimportant element in the masonry of the earth's crust. The last paragraph in the passage is simply transitional; it makes no pretense at developing a topic. topic. As is usual in the case of transitional paragraphs, it is short. The interrogative form is, of course, accidental.

In the bit of dialogue given in the second passage, we have a series of what we have called conventional paragraphs. The separate speeches of each character are set off in paragraphs by themselves, and the reader is thus enabled to differentiate the various. characters presented. The conventional paragraph may, like the normal paragraph, develop a topic; but that is not essential. The only essential thing is that the paragraph be wholly devoted, except for the necessary comments of the writer, to the speech of a particular character on a particular occa

sion.

It should be observed that the conventional paragraph is used only in formal dialogue, that is to say, in dialogue where the narrative is carried forward wholly by the characters themselves and not by the author in his own person. Where this is not the case, where the author carries on the story himself and simply uses the remarks of his characters to illustrate his own points, there is no necessity of put

ting the speeches of the separate characters into paragraphs by themselves.

For example:

Tom Simson not only put all his worldly store at the disposal of Mr. Oakhurst, but seemed to enjoy the prospect of their enforced seclusion. "We'll have a good camp for a week, and then the snow'll melt, and we'll all go back together." The cheerful gayety of the young man and Mr. Oakhurst's calm infected the others. The Innocent, with the aid of pine-boughs, extemporized a thatch for the roofless cabin, and the Duchess directed Piney in the rearrangement of the interior with a taste and tact that opened the blue eyes of that provincial maiden to their fullest extent. "I reckon now you're used to fine things at Poker Flat," said Piney. The Duchess turned away sharply to conceal something that reddened her cheek through its professional tint, and Mother Shipton requested Piney not to "chatter." But when Mr. Oakhurst returned from a weary search for the trail, he heard the sound of happy laughter echoed from the rocks. He stopped in some alarm, and his thoughts first naturally reverted to the whiskey, which he had prudently cached. "And yet it don't somehow sound like whiskey," said the gambler. It was not until he caught sight of the blazing fire through the still blinding storm and the group around it that he settled to the conviction that it was "square fun." 1

In the following passage from a student's theme, however, the paragraphing is faulty, since the dialogue does not get its proper emphasis:

"All ready!" shouted the starter. Bang went the pistol, and off went the runners like flash. It was the last event of the closely contested meet, and the interest in it was intense.

1 From Bret Harte's The Outcasts of Poker Flat.

"Who will win?" asked Mildred eagerly. "Williams, of course," replied Jack. "The fellows all say he has no end of grit. Look at him! Look at him!" And he waved his banner and shouted frantically, as his favorite began slowly to forge ahead of the other runners.

Properly paragraphed, this should read as follows:

"All ready!" shouted the starter. Bang went the pistol, and off went the runners like a flash. It was the last event of the closely contested meet, and interest in it was intense.

"Who will win?" asked Mildred eagerly.

"Williams, of course," replied Jack. "The fellows all say he has no end of grit. Look at him! Look at him!" And he waved his banner and shouted frantically, as his favorite began slowly to forge ahead of the other runners.

27. Structure of the paragraph. - The normal or developing paragraph, as we have seen, is the only kind of paragraph which ordinarily has any very regular form or structure. It is the paragraph of this kind we have in mind, then, when we speak of the laws of paragraph structure.

As to these laws, we find them to be virtually the same as those which govern the structure of the whole composition. The normal paragraph is, in fact, a miniature composition in itself; and unity and the coherence of its parts are just as necessary to make it effective as they are in the case of the larger whole.

28. Unity in the paragraph. The demands of unity require that there should be but one topic in the paragraph. If we try to talk about two or three

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