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sorry for the ill health that spoiled the latter years of his short life, but they remember with satisfaction that the ethereal poet was once muscular enough to administer “ severe drubbing to a butcher whom he caught beating a little boy, to the enthusiastic admiration of a crowd of bystanders." Shelley's name is associated forever with his love of boating, and its disastrous ending. In our own day, when we learn something about the private life of our celebrated contemporaries, we have a satisfaction in knowing that they enjoyed some physical recreation, as, for example, that Tyndall is a mountaineer, Millais a grouse-shooter, John Bright a salmon-fisher; and it is characteristic of the inveteracy of English physical habits that Mr. Fawcett should have gone on riding and skating after he was blind, and that Anthony Trollope was still passionately fond of fox-hunting when he was old and heavy and could hardly see. The English have such a respect for physical energy that they still remember with pleasure how Palmerston hunted in his old age, and how, almost to the last, he would go down to Epsom on horseback. There was a little difficulty about getting him into the saddle, but, once there, he was safe till the end of his journey. HAMERTON: French and English.

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If a writer should begin a paragraph with the topic statement, "The Greeks did not understand athletics at all so well as the English do,” many readers would question the truth of the statement. They would say that the Greeks both understood athletics and practised athletics better than any other people in the history of the world, and they would want to know on what ground so preposterous a notion was advanced. It would then be the business of the writer, if he wanted his readers to agree with him, to bring forward the

grounds or proofs of his assertion. By pointing out defects in the Greek system of training or manner of conducting athletic contests, or, perhaps, by quoting from the opinions of the Greeks themselves, he would endeavor to make his opening sentence seem probable or true. Such is the method employed in the following paragraph:

Though extraordinary feats were sometimes recorded, I believe that the Greeks did not understand athletics at all so well as the English do. Two facts may be mentioned in proof of this. The runners are said to have started shouting. The boxers, who had their fists weighted with loaded leather gloves, swung round at one another's ears, instead of striking straight home. What we hear about their training seems equally stupid; their trained men are described as generally sleepy, they fed on enormous quantities of meat, and and were obliged to swear that they had spent ten months in training before the games. Good generals, such as Alexander and Philopomen, discountenanced athletics as producing bad soldiers. But, nevertheless, the combination of art contests with athletics made the Greek meetings finer and more imposing than ours. -J. P. MAHAFFY: Old Greek Life.

27. Assignments on Development by Specific In

stances.

A. Point out the specific instances by means of which the topic is developed in the following paragraphs.

1. The sounds which the ocean makes must be very significant and interesting to those who live near it. When I was leaving the shore at this place the next summer, and had got a quarter of a mile distant, ascending a hill, I was

startled by a sudden, loud sound from the sea, as if a large steamer was letting off steam by the shore, so that I caught my breath and felt my blood run cold for an instant, and I turned about, expecting to see one of the Atlantic steamers thus far out of her course; but there was nothing unusual to be seen. There was a low bank at the entrance of the Hollow, between me and the ocean, and suspecting that I might have risen into another stratum of air in ascending the hill, - - which had wafted to me only the ordinary roar of the sea, I immediately descended again, to see if I lost hearing of it; but, without regard to my ascending or descending, it died away in a minute or two, and yet there was scarcely any wind all the while. The old man said that this was what they called the "rut," a peculiar roar of the sea before the wind changes, which, however, he could not account for. He thought that he could tell all about the weather from the sounds which the sea made.

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- THOREAU: Cape Cod.

2. There has been a capital illustration lately how helpless many English gentlemen are when called together on a sudden. The Government, rightly or wrongly, thought fit to intrust the quarter-sessions of each county with the duty of combating its cattle plague; but the scene in most “shire halls" was unsatisfactory. There was the greatest difficulty in getting, not only a right decision, but any decision. I saw one myself which went thus. The chairman proposed a very complex resolution, in which there was much which every one liked, and much which every one disliked, though, of course, the favorite parts of some were the objectionable parts to others. This resolution got, so to say, wedged in the meeting; everybody suggested amendments; one amendment was carried which none were satisfied with, and so the matter stood over. It is a saying in England, "a big

meeting never does anything"; and yet we are governed by the House of Commons, - by "a big meeting."

-BAGEHOT: The English Constitution, 207.

3. All history is full of revolutions, produced by causes similar to those which are now [March 2, 1831] operating in England. A portion of the community which had been of no account, expands and becomes strong. It demands a place in the system, suited, not to its former weakness, but to its present power. If this is granted, all is well. If this is refused, then comes the struggle between the young energy of one class and the ancient privileges of another. Such was the struggle between the Plebeians and the Patricians of Rome. Such was the struggle of the Italian allies for admission to the full rights of Roman citizens. Such was the struggle of our North American colonies against the mother country. Such was the struggle which the Third Estate of France maintained against the aristocracy of birth. Such was the struggle which the Roman Catholics of Ireland maintained against the aristocracy of creed. Such is the struggle which the free people of color in Jamaica are now maintaining against the aristocracy of skin. Such, finally, is the struggle which the middle classes in England are maintaining against an aristocracy of mere locality, against an aristocracy, the principle of which is to invest a hundred drunken potwallopers in one place, or the owner of a ruined hovel in another, with powers which are withheld from cities renowned to the furthest ends of the earth for the marvels of their wealth and of their industry.

MACAULAY: Speech on the Reform Bill of 1832.

4. The circle of human nature is not complete without the arc of feeling and emotion. The lilies of the field have a value for us beyond their botanical ones, - a certain lightening of the heart accompanies the declaration that "Solo

mon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." The sound of the village bell which comes mellowed from the valley to the traveller upon the hill has a value beyond its acoustical one. The setting sun when it mantles with the bloom of roses the alpine snows has a value beyond its optical one. The starry heavens, as you know, had for Immanuel Kant a value beyond their astronomical one. Round about the intellect sweeps the horizon of emotions from which all our noblest impulses are derived. I think it very desirable to keep this horizon open; not to permit either priest or philosopher to draw down his shutters between you and it. And here the dead languages, which are sure to be beaten by science in the purely intellectual fight, have an irresistible claim. They supplement the work of science by exalting and refining the æsthetic faculty, and must on this account be cherished by all who desire to see human culture complete. There must be a reason for the fascination which these languages have so long exercised upon the most powerful and elevated minds, a fascination which will probably continue for men of Greek and Roman mold to the end of time. – TYNDALL: Addresses.

B. The following topic statements are to be developed by specific instances or examples. The expressions "to mention a case in point," "for instance,” “a remarkable example of this," will often make clear just what is wanted.

1. One is frequently surprised by the intelligence which the lower animals show.

2. Even very great and very good men usually have some failing.

3. It is often the minor characters in Dickens's novels that are remembered longest.

4. A bad beginning does not necessarily imply a bad ending.

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