why he makes of them a "problem" instead of a pastime through his campus years.-PAINE: The Spirit of School and College Sports, Century, 71: 99.

B. Think of some good comparison, example, specific instance, or analogy that can be used to explain one of the following. Then write the explanation.

1. Why we dislike certain persons.

2. The musical scale.

3. Telepathy.

4. Taking an examination.

5. Reading.

6. How a bank makes money.

7. Laziness.

8. Business methods.

9. Making a speech. 10. Hard work.

11. Learning a trade. 12. Manual training. 13. Domestic science.

14. A system of ventilation. 15. The U. S. postal system. 16. Postal savings.

Reconciling Contradictory Ideas.

117. A subject, as was stated above, may be obscure not only because our ideas about it are in a state of confusion, but because it apparently contains ideas that are inconsistent or contradictory, or that do not seem to belong together. When this is the case, it is the business of exposition to find some principle or notion that will reconcile the contradictory ideas and reduce them to unity. A homely illustration of such a contra

diction and the solution of it is seen in the old story of the milkmaid who, having spilled a pailful of milk on the ashes of the hearth, instantly gathered it up again and put it back in the pail without losing a drop. The story at first hearing seems untrue because of the seeming contradiction between the known results of spilling milk on ashes and the reported action of the milkmaid. All becomes clear, however, as soon as we learn that the milk was frozen solid. The new idea reconciles the two contradictory terms and reduces them to consistency and unity.

An interesting example of this method of explanation is presented in the following: —

Every one who has collated early books generally, more especially English books of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, must have been puzzled by the minute differences between one copy and another which are often to be found on every sheet. Mr. Aldis Wright has proved that in a few cases, always of books for which there was a sudden and large demand, these differences prove that the text was set up simultaneously from the same copy on two or more different presses. But an explanation of this kind does not apply to such a book as the first quarto of King Lear, of which no two of the extant copies agree, nor to Paradise Lost, of which we know that only 1500 copies were printed. Bibliographers are in the habit of saying that "corrections 99 were introduced during the process of printing off, but this would imply that the author stood over the pressmen while they were at work, which in the case of the blind Milton is absurd. Moreover, the differences are not of the nature of real corrections; they are concerned chiefly with punctuation. When they extend

to letters, the number of letters is mostly the same, and it is impossible so to marshal the differences as to show that any one set of them is a distinct improvement on any other.

Mr. Wynne Baxter, addressing the Bibliographical Society of London on "Early Editions of Milton," offered the true explanation of these minor irregularities in old books. A bit of family history came to Mr. Baxter's help. His grandfather was a printer, and precisely because he observed that the leather balls used for more than three centuries to ink the type had a tendency to pull the letters out of the form, he invented the first inking roller. From the time of Shakespeare to that of Milton is the worst and most careless period of English printing. The more carelessly the forms were locked, the more often would the balls pull out the letters from them, and the more opportunities would the pressman have for replacing any he found lying about in the wrong places. The theory was justly greeted by the society by a round of applause. It may not explain all the differences, and the more it is tested the better; but it will be surprising if it is not found to explain a great deal.

118. Assignments on Reconciling Contradictory Ideas. Explain one of the following passages to a student in the grade below yours. Find if possible a principle which will reconcile the seeming contradiction.

1. Laziness is the great motive power of civilization.

2. Verbosity is cured by a wide vocabulary.

3. And peradventure had he seen her first

She might have made this and that other world
Another world for the sick man; but now
The shackles of an old love straiten'd him,
His honor rooted in dishonor stood,
And faith unfaithful kept him falsely true.

- TENNYSON: Lancelot and Elaine.

4. Let us be of good cheer, however, remembering that the misfortunes hardest to bear are those that never come. - LOWELL: Democracy.

5. Treason doth never prosper.

What's the reason?

HARRINGTON (1613).

For if it prospers, none dare call it treason.

6. Ward has no heart they say; but I deny it. He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it. SAMUEL ROGERS on Lord Dudley (Ward).

7. The cure for democracy is more democracy.
8. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.
9. Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.

119. When the subject is too large or too complex to be taken in at a single glance, the writer may make use of division. This is a process of separating an idea into its natural parts according to some essential principle. For example, if we wish to explain to some one the meaning of the term music, we divide it, on the principle of the means employed in producing it, into (1) Vocal Music, (2) Instrumental Music; if we want to explain the term Public School System, we may divide, on the principle of the stage of development of the pupils, into (1) Primary Grades, (2) Grammar Grades, (3) High School.

To obtain a good division it is necessary to divide upon a single principle, otherwise we shall obtain what

is known as a cross-division. Thus, if we wish to treat of the horse, we may divide horses, on the principle of color, into white, black, and bay horses; or on the principle of use, into draught-horses, carriage-horses, and race-horses; but it will not do, using the principles both of color and of use, to divide into bay horses, black horses, and draught-horses, for in that case the divisions will overlap.

Division of some kind is necessary in every form of writing, since the writer must take up ideas one at a time; but an expository essay may divide and do no more than divide. If well-considered, the division will of itself be instructive and enlightening, and will tend to clear away difficulties. Thus the purpose of the following passage is exhausted in making a twofold division into the literature of knowledge and the literature of power; yet the division itself is so sound and true that the subject needs hardly any further discussion. The division has answered the question "What is literature?"

In that great social organ, which collectively we call literature, there may be distinguished two separate offices that may blend, and often do so, but capable severally of a severe insulation, and naturally fitted for reciprocal repulsion. There is, first, the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is, to teach; the function of the second is, to move: the first is a rudder, the second an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy. DE QUINCEY: Alexander Pope.

-