a similar object, to fix an assertion of truth to a definite conclusion. In both cases a careful formulation of the working-idea is necessary, both for writer and for reader.)

EXAMPLES. — 1. Of expository themes. In Herbert Spencer's Essay on The Social Organism, the theme is thus given: "That under all its aspects and through all its ramifications, society is a growth and not a manufacture."1 Hutton's Essay on The Spiritual Fatigue of the World begins by a quoted remark on the modern malady of imagination and then says, "Such a malady of imagination there no doubt is, and it shows itself in morbid activity; but this morbid activity is more often, I believe, the inability to rest which is due to over-fatigue, than the inability to rest which is due to abundance of life,- the restlessness of fever, not the

restlessness of overflowing vitality." 2

2. Of argumentative themes. It is only necessary to call attention to the avowal of principles made in every argument; as, for instance, in Burke's Speech on Conciliation with America, which sets out, "The proposition is Peace. Not Peace through the medium of War; not Peace, etc. It is Peace sought in the Spirit of Peace; and laid in principles purely pacific." 3 Or Schurz's speech on General Amnesty, which makes this avowal: "I beg leave to say that I am in favor of general, or, as this word is considered more expressive, universal amnesty, believing, as I do, that the reasons which make it desirable that there should be amnesty granted at all, make it also desirable that the amnesty should be universal." 4

3. A peculiar modification of the theme belongs to oratory, as befitting perhaps the relation of this form of discourse equally to the intellect and to the emotion. As a working

idea for an argument or plea, the theme may either be expressed or more or less diffused; but in fact this discussion of a subject is not the chief unifying principle. What makes it an oration instead of an essay is the fact that rather than a subject it chooses an object, a point to which the conduct and will may be adjusted; and this object — which

1 SPENCER, Essays, p. 147.

2 HUTTON, Aspects of Religious and Scientific Thought, p. 17.

8 BURKE, Select Works, Vol. i, p. 165.

4 RINGWALT, American Oratory, p. 94.

is generally left unavowed—so absolutely controls the treatment that its whole effect may be summed up in an imperative precept or dictate.

EXAMPLE. Thus, the early preachers said not merely, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand," but "Repent"; and this imperative was the real upshot of their message. The modern statesman, while he labors to convince his audience that this or that view of a public measure is the right one, throws the whole power of his address into the impérative, “Give your allegiance, your influence, your vote to this truth."

III.

Expl

As distinguished from the Title. The theme is distinguished from the title as inner from outer. The theme is intended to concentrate the writer's invention; the title to attract the reader. The theme creates a unity and organism; the title creates an anticipation. Choosing the title, then, is choosing a name which, whatever else it does, shall make the most truthful and favorable impression possible.

Characteristics of the Title. - Three considerations may govern the choice of title; all present in each case, but working in various proportions.

1. It must be truthful, that is, as far as it goes it must give a correct clue to the main idea of the work. This main idea, however, may present itself in two aspects, and be named according to the aspect that dominates. As controlling a course of thought the main idea is didactic; as controlling an appeal to motive or taste the emotional idea, that is, the spirit or animus of the work, may be in dominance. The problem of the title is to name the aspect in which the supreme significance of the work centres.

EXAMPLES. 1. Of titles naming the didactic idea. The Principles of Sociology; The History of European Morals, from Augustus to Charlemagne; The Working Principles of Rhetoric; The Conception of Immortality. Such titles as these aim not to allure listless readers but to guide

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interested ones; they are concerned not with how the reader feels about the subject but with what he thinks about it.

2. Of titles naming the spirit of a book. A Century of Dishonor is the title of a book which gives the history of the United States government's dealings with the Indians; the book is evidently an indictment as well as a history. Put Yourself in his Place is the title of a story intended to inculcate a moral lesson. The Seven Lamps of Architecture is not a technical treatise; the title directs readers to certain moral principles that should illuminate and dignify this art. Such titles are concerned with how the reader shall feel and act as the result of the book's idea.

2. According to the significance of its theme it must be attractive; creating by whatever wording a pleasurable anticipation of its contents. This object is sought by bringing into use all the felicity that may lie in graceful phrase, figure, epigram, subtle allusion or suggestion, and the like. All this, while still an endeavor to name the work truthfully, is an endeavor to get at its idea by a way whose indirectness shall enhance its zest.

EXAMPLES. 1. The graceful turning of phrase, which is perhaps the main object in these attractive titles, is secured in various ways. The Spectator, Mosses from an Old Manse, A Paradise of Dainty Devices, are figurative suggestions, helped by alliteration. Sartor Resartus, Fors Clavigera, Suspiria de Profundis, take their phrase from a foreign language. Sights and Insights, Buds and Bird-Voices, High-Ways and ByWays of Yorkshire, avail themselves of graceful word-play. All's Well that Ends Well, A Counterfeit Presentment, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Choir Invisible, use scraps of quotation or proverb.

2. Often the phrase may convey a graceful or epigrammatic hint. How to be Happy though Married derives point from the word though. Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes is made piquant by the word with, which slyly conveys information of the actual way of travelling. The Innocents Abroad is a delicate double entendre. The Crown of Wild Olive, the title appended to lectures on Work, Traffic, and War, hints at a whole lesson of the book, - the real reward of life's endeavors.

3. A quality of a title so desirable that it may be regarded as essential is a degree of understatement, or at least of

tempered suggestion. It should not promise more than the work will perform; it is unwisely chosen if it reveals too much of the coming thought, or as the phrase is "gives the plot away." On account of this, multitudes of titles consist merely of proper names, or of some locution whose implication is remote; yet even these are chosen with much study of the sounds and natural associations of words.

EXAMPLES. .—I. An interesting example of the study given to the name that should have just the accurate shade of association is described by Sir Walter Scott in the introductory chapter to Waverley. He contrasts it with chivalrous names, such as Howard, Mordaunt, Mortimer, Stanley; with sentimental names, such as Belmour, Belville, Belfield, and Belgrave; then goes on to say, “I have, therefore, like a maiden knight with his white shield, assumed for my hero, WAVERLEY, an uncontaminated name, bearing with its sound little of good or evil, excepting what the reader shall hereafter be pleased to affix to it."

2. Sometimes, as in the case just given, the first title says or intimates so ⚫ little that a supplementary title, somewhat more explanatory, is necessary. In this introduction to Waverley the writer continues his discussion of his title by saying why, instead of “Waverley, a Tale of Other Days," or "Waverley, a Romance from the German," or "Waverley, a Tale of the Times," he chose Waverley, or 'Tis Sixty Years Since. Sometimes the supplementary title is necessary to fix and elucidate the suggestion of the first title. Jevons's Principles of Science might be misleading or blind without the addition, A Treatise on Logic and Scientific Method; so also The Unseen Universe needs the supplement given to it, Or Physical Speculations on a Future State.

3. This modest kind of title may nevertheless get at a form of the main idea. The essay whose theme is quoted on p. 423, for instance, though on the subject The Writing of History, presents only the non-committal title The Truth of the Matter; but how vitally close to the central thought this is, after all, may be seen from the following sentence at the outset "To tell the truth simply, openly, without reservation, is the unimpeachable first principle of all right dealing; and historians have no license to be quit of it," and the following summary at the end: "It is thus and only thus we shall have the truth of the matter: by art, — by the most difficult of all arts."

II. THE MAIN IDEAS.

By the process of determining the theme the subject-matter has been reduced to a working-idea; it is concentrated, and turned in a certain specific direction. Not yet is it analyzed; not yet are its parts coördinated and distributed. This belongs to the next stage of procedure, the making of the plan; which, as the heading here intimates, is the finding and placing of the main ideas.

It is well to bear in mind here that what we are now contemplating is only a framework, and that there are minor ideas, ideas that give the rounding, the life, the color, yet to come. For any determination of main ideas that we make is subject to revision in the light of amplification; changes in wording, in order, in manner of approach, are likely to suggest themselves in the greater glow of final composition. None. the less the plan, the cold-blooded order laid down beforehand, is an invaluable guide as giving the logical mind the general control; and this is its purpose: to guide and keep within bounds, but not to enslave.

I.

The Making of the Plan. To begin with, the plan of a work must be made, and with slow unsatisfactory painstaking; it cannot be trusted to make itself. Many young writers, many fluent writers, mistake here, and think the glow of interest in their subject will make its own plan; an idea which for a while their awkward attempts at planning will only seem to confirm. But in truth this learning to plan is the practical way of training the mind into the habit of seeking order1; and when the habit is fully formed, the act of planning, which at the beginning seemed arbitrary and mechanical, will resolve itself into

1 See above, p. 404.