such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them. In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.1

To go light is to play the game fairly. The man in the woods matches himself against the forces of nature. In the towns he is warmed and fed and clothed so spontaneously and easily that after a time he perforce begins to doubt himself, to wonder whether his powers are not atrophied from disuse. And so, with his naked soul, he fronts the wilderness. It is a test, a measuring of strength, a proving of his essential pluck and resourcefulness and manhood, an assurance of man's highest potency, the ability to endure and to take care of himself. In just so far as he substitutes the ready-made of civilization for the wit-made of the forest, the pneumatic bed for the balsam boughs, in just so far is he relying on other men and other men's labor to take care of him. To exactly that extent is the test invalidated. He has not proved a courteous antagonist, for he has not stripped to the contest."

The average paragraph has not, perhaps, quite so regular a construction as those just cited, both of which have an explicit statement of the topic in the first sentence and a clearly defined conclusion. Still, it tends in the direction of the typical form outlined above, and departs from that form only because of the necessity of avoiding monotony. Owing to the need of variety, we often find the set conclusion omitted and the topic stated in some other sentence than the opening one, or even left without explicit statement at

1 From Irving's Rip Van Winkle.

2 From Stewart Edward White's, The Forest.

all. In this last case the paragraph must be so constructed that the reader will have no difficulty in formulating the topic for himself. In the following paragraph, for example, there is no statement of the topic, but the reader at once perceives that the paragraph is a unified and coherent whole:

As the escort disappeared, their pent-up feelings found vent in a few hysterical tears from the Duchess, some bad language from Mother Shipton, and a Parthian volley of expletives from Uncle Billy. The philosophic Oakhurst alone remained silent. He listened calmly to Mother Shipton's desire to cut somebody's heart out, to the repeated statements of the Duchess that she would die in the road, and to the alarming oaths that seemed to be bumped out of Uncle Billy as he rode forward. With the easy good-humor characteristic of his class, he insisted upon exchanging his own riding-horse, "Five Spot," for the sorry mule which the Duchess rode. But even this act did not draw the party into any closer sympathy. The young woman readjusted her somewhat draggled plumes with a feeble, faded coquetry; Mother Shipton eyed the possessor of "Five Spot" with malevolence, and Uncle Billy included the whole party in one sweeping anathema.”1

31. Methods of developing the topic. The precise method to be followed in developing any given topic will depend, obviously, upon the nature of the topic and the purpose of the paragraph. In general, however, it will consist of one or another or some combination of the following things:

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

(1) Grouping together closely related details. (2) Defining or fixing the limits of the topic. (3) Amplifying or enlarging upon the content or meaning of the topic.

(4) Citing instances or examples by way of illustration of the topic.

-

The first method, — the grouping of closely related. details, is that ordinarily employed in pure narration and description. In this case, the topic of the paragraph is seldom or never explicitly set forth. An example of this method may be seen in the following:

The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty fowling-piece, his uncouth dress, and an army of women and children at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. They crowded around him, eyeing him from head to foot with great curiosity. The orator bustled up to him, and drawing him partly aside, inquired "on which side he voted?" Rip started in vacant stupidity. Another short but busy little fellow pulled him by the arm, and, rising on tiptoe, inquired in his ear, "Whether he was Federal or Democrat?" Rip was equally at a loss to comprehend the question; when a knowing, self-important old gentleman, in a sharp cocked hat, made his way through the crowd, putting them to the right and left with his elbows as he passed, and planting himself before Van Winkle, with one arm akimbo, the other resting on his cane, his keen eyes and sharp hat penetrating, as it were, into his very soul, demanded in an austere tone, what brought him to the election with a gun on his shoulder, and a mob at his heels, and whether he meant to breed a riot in the village? "Alas! gentlemen," cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, "I am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!"

1 From Irving's Rip Van Winkle.

Development by definition may be illustrated by the following:

The kinetic theory of gases is now generally accepted by men of science, and all modern investigations of the mathematical relations of molecular forces and centres are based upon this theory. It asserts that a gas consists of a collection of molecules, simple or compound, which are in extremely rapid motion and which intermingle freely, coming into collision with each other, probably, and certainly with the confining surfaces of the chamber in which they may be contained, with a violence which depends upon their velocities; which velocities, in turn, are determined by the temperature of the mass. In fact, the supposed motion of these particles is that mode of motion known as heat. The intermolecular spaces, and hence the free paths of the molecules, are comparatively large, and each molecule moves over distances of considerable length, as compared to its own diameter, on the average, without collision with its neighbor molecules; but the continual motion of all produces great variations in the momentary distances of particle from particle, and while the mean density of the mass at any point is preserved, the number of molecules within any prescribed space is never the same at any two consecutive instants.1

Development by amplifying or enlarging upon the meaning of the topic is, perhaps, the most common of all methods of topic development, and hence may be regarded as the typical method. The following example will suffice as an illustration:

Yet one more cause of failure in our lives here may be briefly spoken of — the want of method or order.

Men do

1 From R. H. Thurston's Heat as a Form of Energy.

not consider sufficiently, not merely what is suited to the generality, but what is suited to themselves individually. They have different gifts and therefore their studies should take a different course. One man is capable of continuous thought and reading, while another has not the full use of his faculties for more than an hour or two at a time. It is clear that persons so differently constituted should proceed on a different plan. Again, one man is gifted with powers of memory and acquisition, another with thought and reflection; it is equally clear that there ought to be a corresponding difference in the branches of study to which they devote themselves. Things are done in half the time and with half the toil when they are done upon a well-considered system, when there is no waste and nothing has to be unlearned. As mechanical forces pressed into the service of man increase a hundredfold more and more his bodily strength, so does the use of method, of all methods which science has already invented (for as actions are constantly passing into habits, so is science always being converted into method),· of all the methods which an individual can devise for himself, enlarge and extend the mind. And yet how rarely does any one ever make a plan of study for himself or a plan of

his own life.1

An illustration of development by citing instances or examples is afforded by the following:

Historians and philosophers have not infrequently remarked that the stress of war results in the advancement of science and learning. Napoleon's invasion of Egypt carried in its train the unlocking of the mysteries of the hieroglyphs and the production of the great work "Description de l'Egypte." More recently the foundation of the University of Strassburg signalized the close of the Franco-Prussian War

.

1 From Benjamin Jowett's College Sermons.