a very short one-the object of which is to give prominence to a certain aspect or turn of the discourse. It has also been called a Directive or a Transitional Paragraph.

Sometimes the link-paragraph gives weight and solemnity to a thought when first introduced, and suggests its significance for the future. For example, Hawthorne, after narrating the festivities for opening the house, and the startling discovery of the owner, Colonel Pyncheon, sitting dead in his chair, inserts this short paragraph:

Thus early had that one guest-the only guest who is certain, at one time or another, to find his way into every dwelling,-thus early had Death stepped across the threshold of the House of the Seven Gables.

At other times the link-paragraph recalls from a digression. For example, in Chapter XV. of The House of the Seven Gables, Hepzibah, goaded to frenzy, pours out her full wrath upon the Judge. Then follow several pages, taken up with an analysis of his character, past and present. Then comes this short paragraph, recalling us to the present situation :

But our affair now is with Judge Pyncheon as he stood confronting the fierce outbreak of Hepzibah's wrath. Without premeditation, to her own surprise and indeed terror, she had given vent for once to the inveteracy of her resentment, cherished against this kinsman for thirty years.

Again, the link-paragraph may sum up the preceding paragraphs and lead on to the following. For example, Macaulay, in his Chatham, after speaking of the proposed revival of royal authority, inserts the following:

Absurd as this theory was, it had many followers, particularly among men of letters. It was now to be reduced to practice; and the result was, as any man of sagacity must have foreseen, the most piteous and ridiculous of failures.

Farther on in the same essay, after speaking at length of Bute's resignation, its probable causes and the attendant circumstances, Macaulay inserts the following link:

Whatever may have been his motives, he retired. Fox at the same time took refuge in the House of Lords [that is, was made peer with the

title of Lord Holland]; and Grenville became first Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer [that is, became Prime Minister].

As a specimen of linking in simple narrative we may note the last paragraph in the second chapter of Silas Marner:

But about the Christmas of that fifteenth year a second great change came over Marner's life, and his history became blent in a singular manner with the life of his neighbors.

Chapter third introduces the neighbors.

Caution. The reader should be on his guard against mistaking every short brisk paragraph, especially in narrative, for a link. The office of the genuine link-paragraph is to sum up, to pause and to look forward, or to linger suggestively. Its inevitable effect is that of a halt, however slight. Whereas an ordinary short paragraph rather accelerates the general movement.

Examples of both sorts are found in close proximity in Irving's Buckthorne. For example :

In this way, then, did I enter the metropolis, a strolling vagabond, on the top of a caravan, with a crew of vagabonds about me; but I was as happy as a prince; for, like Prince Hal, I felt myself superior to my situation, and knew that I could at any time cast it off, and emerge into my proper sphere.

This not only sums up the past but suggests the future. A reader familiar with Irving's covert irony will immediately suspect that this future may not be quite as the young runaway fancies. A later paragraph tells us how Buckthorne "emerged into his proper sphere":

In the midst of my doleful dumps, some one tapped me on the shoulder, and, looking up, I saw a couple of rough sturdy fellows standing behind me. Not knowing what to expect, I jumped on my legs, and was preparing again to make battle, but was tripped up and secured in a twinkling.

This is not a link but merely a brisk narrative paragraph. The reader is hurried along, as Buckthorne was hurried. The two fellows have captured him for the reward offered by the Soon, however, we do get a genuine link:

Thus ended my first peep into the world. I returned home, rich in good-for-nothing experience, and dreading the reward I was to receive for my improvement. My reception, however, was quite different from what I had expected. My father had a spice of the devil in him, and did not seem to like me the worse for my freak, which he termed "sowing my wild oats." He happened to have some of his sporting friends to dine the very day of my return; they made me tell some of my adventures, and laughed heartily at them.

Buckthorne's adventures as a strolling player are thus sunimed up; the conclusion of the paragraph suggests a new, yet different, phase of vagabondage.

Further Caution.—The paragraph is a body of thought, not a single detached thought. Even the link-paragraph, however short, is a summing up and a leading on. It marks a distinct turn. Apart from the link-paragraph, every paragraph ought to present an adequate treatment of some considerable portion of the subject. Yet of late the fashion has prevailed altogether too much of writing a succession of very short paragraphs, each containing only a or at the most two very short sentences. Hotel Rafael incident, was quoted in § 52. added the following:

single sentence, An example, the To that may be

Some of the leading citizens of McCook, Arizona, having made all the money they could possibly use in the remaining years of their life, decided to reform.

In fact, we got to be such a good town that the women began to

move in.

No sooner had they moved in than fancy linen made its appearance. The very next step in the triumphant march of civilization was Lee Toy.

Lee Toy came originally from China. For a living he washed shirts and other things.

This manner of writing is supposed to be the mark of superior "brains"; it is called "snappy." And, indeed, it makes upon the mind an impression like that made by the snapping of a pack of firecrackers. It is mere noise. The judicious reader knows that such is not the manner of the

great writers, who have the art of combining vivacity with dignity. The judicious reader knows also that this "fad," like others of the sort, will have its day and pass away and be forgotten. Lest, however, the young be tempted to yield to the passing fad and be "snappy," let them consider the following axiom. To make certain things prominent is good, is even necessary, in all writing. Only, you must select what is truly prominent. For, when you make everything prominent, you leave nothing prominent.

CHAPTER V.

COMPOSITION-WRITING.

55. General Explanation.-The term composition may be applied to any piece of writing, whether long or short, whether complicated or simple. Thus, any one of the independent paragraphs quoted in §§ 41, 42, is no less a composition than Carlyle's Frederick the Great, a work in several volumes, each volume divided into books, chapters, sections, and paragraphs.

In the present chapter, however, the term Composition is employed in the usual school and college sense, to denote a piece of writing which may vary in length from 500 words to 1500 or 2000 words, and which is to embody the knowledge, views, and feelings of a young writer upon a subject within the range of school and college life or study.

Whether the writing be called a composition or an essay does not matter. Neither does it matter, for the present chapter, whether the subject be chosen by the writer himself or assigned to him by the teacher.

It is the office of life and of education in general to tell the writer what to say. Thus the historian finds out what to say by studying the records of the past; the botanist, by studying plants; the economist, by studying the phenomena of trade and exchange.

The office of the teacher of composition, or of a manual like the present, is not to tell the writer what to say but merely to try to show him how to put his thoughts and observations into readable shape. Teacher and manual can do for the writer nothing more than lay down a few simple general principles. These principles may be briefly treated under three headings.

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