CHAPTER III.

PARAGRAPHS.

Introductory.

16. We have learned how the larger unit of composition, called the essay or theme, grows from a vague idea into a complete, well-framed structure. We have studied the processes of dividing and grouping by which this growth takes place. We have now to consider a similar growth in the smaller units, called paragraphs, of which the essay is composed.

While the composition is being written, each topic in the plan - each fact or group of related facts — grows into a group of sentences that belong together. These groups of related sentences are called paragraphs. Careful writers mark off every such group for the benefit of the reader by beginning the first sentence a little to the right of the left margin. But whether carefully marked off or carelessly run together, the groups are there, and in all good writing are easily recognized by the reader as the related units which make up the whole composition.

One writer has said, "Look to the paragraphs and the discourse will look to itself, for, although a discourse as a whole has a method or plan suited to its nature, yet the confining of each paragraph to a distinct topic avoids some of the worst faults of composition, besides

which, he that fully comprehends the method of a paragraph will also comprehend the method of an entire work."

Topic Statement.

17. In good writing the reader can usually pick out one of the sentences which states the main idea of the paragraph. Usually this sentence, which is called the topic statement, is at the very beginning of the paragraph; sometimes it comes later; occasionally it is left until the very end. Sometimes it occupies two sentences; again it is found in a single phrase or clause. If the reader finds no topic statement, he can usually make one for himself, from what the paragraph says as a whole.

The most important part of the sentence that states the topic is the predicate, or some adverb, or adjective. In the sentence, "The poor are usually ungrateful to those who help them," the topic is not "the poor" but their "ungratefulness." In the sentence, "I made a laughable mistake," the topic is not "mistake," but laughable mistake." What is said of the subject, in the predicate, or in some modifier, is the all-important thing.

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The test of a good paragraph is the possibility of expressing all that it stands for in one brief but comprehensive statement. A series of such statements, following the order of the paragraphs, would reproduce the plan or outline of the whole composition, and would present its leading ideas in brief or abstract.

18.

Assignments on the Topic Statement.

A. In each of the following paragraphs one sentence or a part of one sentence is devoted to the topic statement. Find it. If it is not stated first, can you think of a reason why the writer delayed announcing it?

1. I made a laughable mistake this morning in giving alms. A man stood on the shady side of the street with his hat in his hand, and as I passed he gave me a piteous look, though he said nothing. He had such a woe-begone face, and such a threadbare coat, that I at once took him for one of those mendicants who bear the title of poveri vergognosi — bashful beggars; persons whom pinching want compels to receive the stranger's charity, though pride restrains them from asking it. Moved with compassion, I threw into the hat the little I had to give; when, instead of thanking me with a blessing, my man with the threadbare coat showered upon me the most sonorous maledictions of his native tongue, and, emptying his greasy hat upon the pavement, drew it down over his ears with both hands, and stalked away with all the dignity of a Roman senator in the best days of the republic, to the infinite amusement of a green-grocer, who stood at his shop-door bursting with laughter. No time was given me for an apology; but I resolved to be for the future more discriminating in my charities, and not to take for a beggar every poor gentleman who chose to stand in the shade with his hat in his hand on a hot summer's day.

-LONGFELLOW: Outre-Mer.

2. We are accustomed to call Washington the "Father of his country." It would be useless, if one desired to do so, to dispute his right to the title. He and no other will· bear it through the ages. He established our country's freedom with the sword, then guided its course during the first critical years of its independent existence. No one can know the figure without feeling how real is its greatness. is impossible to see how, without Washington, the nation could have ever been. His name is and should be greatest. But after all is "Father of America" the best title for

It

Washington? Where and what was Washington during those long preliminary years while the nation was taking form .? A quiet planter, who in youth as a surveyor had come to know the woods; who in his young manhood had led bodies of provincials with some efficiency in certain unsuccessful military expeditions; who in maturity had sat, for the most part in silence, among his talking colleagues in the House of Burgesses, with scarcely a suggestion to make in all the sharp debate, while the new nation was shaping. There is another character in our history to whom was once given the title, "Father of America,” a man to a large extent forgotten, his reputation overlaid by that of those who followed him, no other than this man of the townmeeting, Samuel Adams. As far as the GENESIS of America is concerned, Samuel Adams can more properly be called the "Father of America" than Washington.

- HOSMER: Samuel Adams.

B. In each of the following paragraphs the topic statement.is found in two or more sentences or in parts of two or more sentences. Restate it briefly in a single sentence. Remember that the most significant part of the sentence will be the predicate, or some adjective or adverb.

1. There is a general impression in England, that the people of the United States are inimical to the parent country. It is one of the errors which have been diligently propagated by designing writers. There is, doubtless, considerable political hostility, and a general soreness at the illiberality of the English press; but, generally speaking, the prepossessions of the people are strongly in favor of England. Indeed, at one time, they amounted, in many parts of the Union, to an absurd degree of bigotry. The bare name of Englishman was a passport to the confidence and hospitality of every family, and too often gave a tran

sient currency to the worthless and the ungrateful. Throughout the country there was something of enthusiasm connected with the idea of England. We looked to it with a hallowed feeling of tenderness and veneration, as the land of our forefathers the august repository of the monuments and antiquities of our race-the birthplace and mausoleum of the sages and heroes of our paternal history. After our own country, there was none in whose glory we more delighted— none whose good opinion we were more

anxious to possess none towards which our hearts yearned with such throbbings of warm consanguinity. Even during the late war, whenever there was the least opportunity for kind feelings to spring forth, it was the delight of the generous spirits of our country to show that, in the midst of hostilities, they still kept alive the sparks of future friendship. - IRVING: Sketch-Book.

2. To the student of political history, and to the English student above all others, the conversion of the Roman Republic into a military empire commands a peculiar interest. Notwithstanding many differences, the English and the Romans essentially resemble one another. The early Romans possessed the faculty of self-government beyond any people of whom we have historical knowledge, with the one exception of ourselves. In virtue of their temporal freedom, they became the most powerful nation in the known world; and their liberties perished only when Rome became the mistress of the conquered races to whom she was unable or unwilling to extend her privileges. If England was similarly supreme, if all rival powers were eclipsed by her or laid under her feet, the Imperial tendencies, which are as strongly marked in us as our love of liberty, might lead us over the same course to the same end.