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In this matter of ruling and margin every teacher should adopt uniform requirements.

62. Introduction and Conclusion.-It is impossible to lay down precise rules for the employment of paragraphs of introduction and conclusion. Are they always necessary? The ordinary text-book seems to teach that they are. example:

For

Every theme, when complete, consists of three parts—the Introduction, the Discussion, and the Conclusion.1

Another term for the Discussion is the Body of the Discourse. There are grave objections to the doctrine as thus put. In truth, the whole theory of Introduction and Conclusion is applicable to the preparing of public discourses, orations, essays, books, and other matter for print, rather than to the writing of school and college compositions.

In a paper of 600 or 800 or even of 1000 words there is no room and no call for a formal beginning and ending. Observe the following directions:

Content yourself with

Get to work as quickly as possible. your outline, first draught, and revision. If these are well done, your paper will be clear, coherent, and to the point. More than that no one has a right to demand of you.

If the paper is to contain 1500 words or upward, especially if it is upon a subject at all complex, involving something more than mere narration or description, the writer may consider this question :

Can I really make my treatment more effective by means of an introduction and a conclusion?

That is to say, the writer should judge for himself, and not follow blindly a mere text-book rule.

1 Williams, Composition and Rhetoric, edition of 1892, p. 271; see also D. J. Hill, Elements of Rhetoric and Composition, p. 16. On the other side, see Wendell, English Composition, p. 167, upon the impulse" to preface something in particular by at least a paragraph of nothing in particular, bearing to the real matter in hand a relation not more inherently intimate than that of the tuning of violins to a symphony."

In any case the Introduction should be nothing more than the Working or Subject Formula (see § 59), cast into a brief paragraph of forty or fifty words. Webster's argument in the Dartmouth College case offers a model :

The general question is, whether the acts of the legislature of New Hampshire of the 27th of June and of the 18th and 26th of December, 1816, are valid and binding on the plaintiffs without their acceptance or

assent.

The following, slightly longer, is from Ruskin's lecture on Turner and His Works:

My object this evening is [not so much to give you any account of the works or the genius of the great painter whom we have so lately lost (which it would require rather a year than an hour to do) as] to give you some idea of the position which his works hold with respect to the landscape of other periods, and of the general condition and prospects of the landscape art of the present day. [I will not lose time in prefatory remarks, as I have little enough at any rate, but will enter abruptly on my subject.]

By suppressing the passages here inclosed in square brackets, Ruskin might have reduced the paragraph to forty words; still, these extra words are not without significance.

The following is from one of Huxley's lectures:

The subject to which I have to beg your attention during the ensuing hour is "The Relation of Physiological Science to Other Branches of Knowledge."

[This is merely a Title; it is followed by a paragraph of personal explanation. Then comes the real Introduction :]

Regarding Physiological Science, then, in its widest sense, as the equivalent of Biology, the Science of Individual Life, we have to consider in succession:

I. Its position and scope as a branch of knowledge.

2. Its value as a means of discipline.

3. Its worth as practical information.

4. At what period it may best be made a branch of education.

In Narration and Description it is well to begin by locating the scene or the centre of interest. The following examples are from Irving and Hawthorne :

On a stormy night, in the tempestuous times of the French revolution,

a young German was returning to his lodgings, at a late hour, across the old part of Paris. The lightning gleamed, and the loud claps of thunder rattled through the lofty narrow streets-but I should first tell you something about this young German.

Half-way down a by-street of one of our New England towns stands a rusty wooden house, with seven acutely peaked gables, facing towards various points of the compass, and a huge, clustered chimney in the midst. The street is Pyncheon Street; the house is the old Pyncheon house; and an elm tree, of wide circumference, rooted before the door, is familiar to every town-born child by the title of the Pyncheon elm. On my occasional visits to the town aforesaid, I seldom failed to turn down Pyncheon Street, for the sake of passing through the shadow of these two antiquities—the great elm tree and the weather-beaten edifice.

The last sentence in the paragraph from Hawthorne is a specimen of that author's subtle method of interweaving the thread of human sympathy. Irving's abrupt ending is a not very common mode of leading on to the next paragraph (see $49).

A paragraph of Conclusion should, if possible, leave upon the reader's mind an impression of power. The writer should not merely sum up his views: he should try to drive them home by a succession of quick bold utterances. Further, he should, if the subject admits of it, make the whole paragraph an expression of deep yet somewhat repressed feeling.

The conclusion of Hawthorne's House of the Seven Gables is noteworthy :

Maule's well, all this time, though left in solitude, was throwing up a succession of kaleidoscopic pictures, in which a gifted eye might have seen foreshadowed the coming fortunes of Hepzibah and Clifford, and the descendant of the legendary wizard, and the village-maiden over whom he had thrown love's web of sorcery. The Pyncheon elm, moreover, with what foliage the September gale had spared to it, whispered unintelligible prophecies. And wise uncle Venner, passing slowly from the ruinous porch, seemed to hear a strain of music, and fancied that sweet Alice Pyncheon-after witnessing these deeds, this by-gone woe, and this present happiness, of her kindred mortais-had given one farewell touch of a spirit's joy upon her harpsichord, as she floated heavenward from the House of the Seven Gables,

The conclusion of George Eliot's Janet's Repentance, simpler in thought, is equally effective:

But there is another memorial of Edgar Tryan, which bears a fuller record: it is Janet Dempster, rescued from self-despair, strengthened with divine hopes, and now looking back on years of purity and helpful labor. The man who has left such a memorial behind him must have been one whose heart beat with true compassion, and whose lips were moved by fervent faith.

The conclusion of Irving's The Voyage, describing his landing in England, is simpler still :

All now was hurry and bustle. The meetings of acquaintances—the greeting of friends-the consultations of men of business. I alone was solitary and idle. I had no friend to meet, no cheering to receive. I stepped upon the land of my forefathers—but felt that I was a stranger in the land.

For a specimen of Macaulay's manner, see the conclusion of the essay on Addison, quoted in § 52.

Introduction and Conclusion in Oratory.-Oratory in the true sense is a study by itself, demanding special training and perhaps also peculiar gifts. Certainly there is no room in the present text-book for the study of true oratory. By an oration is here meant a speech delivered by the ordinary student before a school or college audience, a speech upon school or college subjects.

Such a speech, however short and simple, needs both introduction and conclusion; undoubtedly the audience will expect them both. How, then, should they be constructed?

1. Prepare your speech as carefully as possible, according to the directions given in §§ 56-61. Pay especial attention to Repeated Structure, § 50.

2. Compose a brief introductory paragraph in which you arrest the listener's attention and give him a survey of the subject. Study the specimens quoted from Webster, Ruskin, and Huxley.

3. The concluding paragraph may be somewhat longer; yet 100 words would certainly be a wise limit. In this para

graph try to awaken the listener's sympathy with the subject itself and with your treatment of it. Sum up clearly. Be somewhat emotional, but do not cease to be calm and dignified. Let a vein of moral reflection run through the whole. Let this conclusion be less intense than the stronger passages in the speech proper.

Unfortunately, the so-called perorations of the great speakers -men like Burke and Webster-are impossible models for the young; these perorations are too grandiose. The tone of the conclusions quoted from George Eliot and Irving, however, is something that may be followed with safety.

There is

But in a

63. Link-Paragraph.-How far this may be available in ordinary school and college writing is a problem. no room for one in a paper of 600 or 800 words. longer paper, especially in a paper that seems to require an introduction and a conclusion, a link-paragraph may be a very desirable feature. It is always a useful means of disposing of one section of the subject and leading on to another section obviously in contrast. It is a very convenient device for summing up details in a provisional conclusion. In short, the link-paragraph marks what we call "transitions.”

The longer the paper, the greater the need of linkparagraphs. A paper of 1500 words ought certainly to have one or two. The writer ought to find out the points at which a slight pause suggests itself, and insert at these points a brief survey of what he has said, and a hint of what he is going to say.

The absence of link-paragraphs is undoubtedly the chief cause of the monotony of school and college writing. Their presence would give to every paper a much higher degree of organization and much greater ease of movement. The young writer, accordingly, is urged to cultivate the art of "linking.” 64. The Title.-The most prolific source of error among young writers is the confusion of Subject and Title. The Subject, as formulated according to the directions given in § 59, is the main thing; the Title is, in strictness, only an

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