reader is asked to join King James at four and march with O'Neil. Macaulay would have obviated this countermarching had he restricted all his principal statements to Schomberg's attack and reduced the mention of King James to a subordinate statement. Thus :

Meinhart Schomberg was assisted by Portland and Douglas. At the bridge Schomberg encountered Sir Neil O'Neil and a regiment of dragoons which King James had sent thither in anticipation of some such flanking movement. O'Neil behaved himself like a brave gentleman, etc.

There is another instance of break in continuity in Macaulay's essay on Warren Hastings:

Nor must we forget that all, or almost all, to whom, when placed at the head of affairs, he could apply for assistance, were persons who owed as little as himself, or less than himself, to education. A minister in Europe finds himself, on the first day on which he commences his functions, surrounded by experienced public servants, the depositaries of official traditions. Hastings had no such help. His own reflection, his own energy, were to supply the place of all Downing Street and Somerset House.

While reading of Hastings in India, we are suddenly confronted with a minister in Europe. By a very slight change Macaulay could have made his thought continuous:

or less than himself, to education. Unlike a minister in Europe, who finds himself . . . official traditions, Hastings had no one to turn to for help. His own reflection, etc.

The worst break of continuity in Macaulay is to be found. in his criticism of Addison's poem, The Campaign. It begins thus :

The "Campaign" came forth, and was as much admired by the public as by the minister. It pleases us less on the whole than the " Epistle to Halifax." Yet it undoubtedly ranks high among the poems which appeared during the interval between the death of Dryden and the dawn of Pope's genius. The chief merit of the "Campaign," we think, is that which was noticed by Johnson, the manly and rational rejection of fiction. The first great poet whose works have come down to us sang of war long before war became a science or a trade. If, in his time, etc.

and so on for over a page, all in one paragraph and all about the heroes of Greek epic poetry. Then follows a paragraph

upon the early and late imitators of Homer. Then the third paragraph opens:

Addison, with excellent sense and taste, departed from this ridiculous fashion, etc.

Such treatment violates every principle of paragraphing, ignores not only sequence but unity. Macaulay should have cast his remarks upon Homeric poetry in a separate paragraph. Further, he should have marked the transition from The Campaign to Homer by some explanatory phrase. Lastly, he should have defined" fiction." Certainly a poet without any fiction is scarcely a poet. Macaulay meant conventional" fiction. The break might be reconstructed thus:

66

The chief merit of the "Campaign," we think, is that which was noticed by Johnson, the manly and rational rejection of conventional fiction.

This fiction has been handed down from the first great poet, from Homer, who sang of war long before war became, etc.

In view of the prominence given to Macaulay in the English programme of our preparatory schools, it is not superfluous to warn the scholars against his faults. Nor is it superfluous to add that in paragraphing and sentence-structure Burke is greatly his superior.

46. The Topic Sentence.-This is a corollary of paragraph-unity. The doctrine of the topic-sentence has been formulated thus:

Every paragraph should have a clearly defined idea, to the development of which each sentence contributes. This idea is usually expressed definitely and unmistakably in one of the sentences of the paragraph, called the topic-sentence. The topic-sentence is generally most effective when short and striking. It is often found to be. however, not a whole sentence in itself, but only a part of a sentence, what precedes being obviously preparatory to its more forcible presentation. Sometimes the topic-sentence need not be expressed definitely. In such a paragraph the topic is implied in all that is said. The test of a good paragraph of this kind is the possibility of phrasing the main idea, which it contains, in a single sentence. Whether expressed or implied, therefore, the topicsentence should exist as a working-theme in the mind of the writer while

constructing each sentence, and the bearing of each sentence on the paragraph-theme should be clear and distinct.1

This formulation is in itself perfectly correct and, to the trained mind, perfectly clear and adequate. The untrained mind, however, will probably find the formulation abstruse, and desire something more concrete and a simpler wording.

1. The topic-sentence, in the strict sense, is demanded only in argumentation and exposition. In argumentation, which is proving a certain proposition, we must of necessity state unmistakably that which we are trying to prove. example :

For

First, sir, permit me to observe that the use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment, but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again; and a nation is not governed which is perpetually to be conquered.-BURKE: Conciliation.

Exposition is merely explaining or making clear a general fact or relation, a law or a principle. Here, too, we must state unmistakably that which we are trying to make clear. For example:

In discussing the savage character, writers have been too prone to indulge in vulgar prejudices and passionate exaggeration, instead of the candid temper of true philosophy. They have not sufficiently considered the peculiar circumstances in which the Indians have been placed, and the peculiar principles under which they have been educated. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws that govern him are, to be sure, but few, but then he conforms to them all; the white man abounds in laws of religion, morals, and manners, but how many of them does he violate?-IRVING: Traits of Indian Character.

2. Narrative and Description, on the other hand, lend them

selves less readily to topic-sentences. In truth it may be questioned whether a paragraph of genuine narration or description always admits of a genuine topic-sentence. Are we usually able to compress into a single sentence a series of incidents, a

1 Scott and Denney, Paragraph Writing, p. 19.

group of details? The reader may compare the paragraph on a Cornfield in July, § 44; the Raleigh incident, § 44; the Little Urchin, § 45.

Nevertheless, even in the most genuine narrative and description, a good writer, while observing the strictest sequence, will nearly always make some incident or feature more conspicuous than the rest. A phrase, a sentence, occasionally more than one sentence, will stand out against the body of the paragraph as against a background.

Such prominent phrases and sentences may be called Paragraph-Centres, or Key Sentences. Usually they will be found to embody a reflection, a general observation. For example:

He was a tight brisk little man, with the air of an arrant old bachelor. His nose was shaped like the bill of a parrot; his face slightly pitted with the small-pox, with a dry perpetual bloom on it, like a frost-bitten leaf in autumn. He had an eye of great quickness and vivacity, with a drollery and lurking waggery of expression that was irresistible. He was evidently the wit of the family, dealing very much in sly jokes and innuendoes with the ladies, and making infinite merriment by harping upon old themes; which, unfortunately, my ignorance of the family chronicles did not permit me to enjoy. It seemed to be his great delight during supper to keep a young girl next to him in a continual agony of stifled laughter, in spite of her awe of the reproving looks of her mother, who sat opposite. Indeed, he was the idol of the younger part of the company, who laughed at everything he said or did, and at every turn of his countenance; I could not wonder at it, for he must have been a miracle of accomplishments in their eyes. He could imitate Punch and Judy; make an old woman of his hand, with the assistance of a burnt cork and pocket handkerchief; and cut up an orange into such a ludicrous caricature that the young folks were ready to die with laughing.-IRVING: Christmas Eve.

It was the very witching time of night that1 Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travel homewards along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cherrily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him, the Tappan Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop riding quietly at anchor under the land. In the dead hush of night he could even hear the barking of the watch dog, etc.-IRVING: Sleepy Hollow.

1 Irving is much given to using "that" for " when,"

But when Godfrey was lifting his eyes from one of those long glances, they encountered an object as startling to him at that moment as if it had been an apparition from the dead. It was an apparition from that hidden life which lies, like a dark by-street, behind the goodly ornamented façade that meets the sunlight and the gaze of respectable admirers. It was his own child carried in Silas Marner's arms. That was his instantaneous impression, unaccompanied by doubt, though he had not seen the child for months past; and when the hope was rising that he might possibly be mistaken, Mr. Crackenthorp and Mr. Lammeter had already advanced to Silas, in astonishment at this strange advent. Godfrey joined them immediately, unable to rest without hearing every word-trying to control himself, but conscious that if any one noticed him, they must see that he was white-lipped and trembling.-GEORGE ELIOT: Silas Marner.

The following paragraph, in which Irving describes Dick Waldron's courtship, is peculiarly instructive :

This youngster gradually became an intimate visitor of the family. He talked little, but he sat long. He filled the father's pipe when it was empty, gathered up the mother's knitting-needle or ball of worsted when it fell to the ground, stroked the sleek coat of the tortoise-shell cat, and replenished the teapot for the daughter from the bright copper kettle that sang before the fire. All these quiet little offices may seem of trifling import; but when true love is translated into Low Dutch, it is in this way that it eloquently expresses itself. family, etc.-Wolfert Webber.

The paragraph would have out the italicized sentence. nothing to the detail of the paragraph be without them? scene; like a flash of sunlight everything.

They were not lost upon the Webber

been complete in structure withThese few words add little or picture. Yet what would the They give the very spirit of the across a landscape, they reveal

47. Principal Places in the Paragraph.-In § 27 the principal places in the sentence were said to be the beginning and the end, especially the end. The doctrine of the sentence, however, cannot be applied rigorously, or even generally, to the paragraph. We cannot say of the paragraph that the beginning should always or even usually be striking; that the end should always or usually be the most striking

1 Italicized in the original,