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Where the sea-beasts, ranged all round,
Feed in the ooze of their pasture-ground;
Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine;
Where great whales come sailing by,
Sail and sail, with unshut eye,

Round the world for ever and aye."

- ARNOLD: The Forsaken Merman.

III. Point out the specific words in the following descriptions. Try to analyze, as far as possible, their effect.

1. "The sun was going down on the Carquinez woods. The few shafts of sunlight that had pierced their pillared gloom were lost in unfathomable depths, or splintered their ineffectual lances on the enormous trunks of the redwoods. For a time the dull red of their vast columns, and the dull red of their cast-off bark which matted the echoless aisles, still seemed to hold a faint glow of the dying day. But even this soon passed. Sight and color fled upwards. The dark interlaced tree-tops, that had all day made an impenetrable shade, broke into fire here and there; their last spires glittered, faded, and went utterly out. A weird twilight that did not come from the outer world, but seemed born of the wood itself, slowly filled and possessed the aisles. The straight, tall, colossal trunks rose dimly like columns of upward smoke. The few fallen trees stretched their huge length into obscurity, and seemed to lie on shadowy trestles. The strange breath that filled these mysterious vaults had neither coldness nor moisture; a dry, fragrant dust arose from the noiseless foot that trod their bark-strewn floor; the aisles might have been tombs, the fallen trees enormous mummies; the silence the solitude of a forgotten past."

·BRET HARTE: In the Carquinez Woods.

2. "The charmed sunset lingered low adown

In the red west: thro' mountain-clefts the dale
Was seen far inland, and the yellow down
Bordered with palm, and many a winding vale
And meadow, set with slender galingale :

A land where all things always seemed the same!"
- TENNYSON: The Lotus-Eaters.

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IV. Give five specific terms that fall under each of the general terms given below:1

Sound; ship; country; fiction; art.

V. Rewrite the following sentences, using specific terms instead of general:

1. The animal came toward him from the woods. 2. Some forms of art were helped by the spirit of the sixteenth century. 3. People went into the building.

VI. Select from your own reading several passages in which specific terms are used effectively, and one passage or more in which general terms are used with better effect than specific words would have.

1 For example, light: gleam, twinkle, flash, glare, glow.

CHAPTER XII

PARAGRAPHS

123. PLAN OF PROCEDURE. - 124. THE IMPORTANCE OF THE PARAGRAPH.-125. THE PARAGRAPH BY ITSELF.-126. UNITY, EMPHASIS, AND COHERENCE.-127. UNITY.-128. THE TEST OF UNITY. - EXERCISE 57.—129. EMPHASIS.-130. THE TOPIC SENTENCE. 131. THE SUMMARY SENTENCE.-132. THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PARAGRAPH. — EXERCISE 58.-133. COHERENCE. — 134. COHERENCE: THE PLAN.-135. COHERENCE: SEQUENCE. 136. COHERENCE: CONNECTIVES.-137. LACK OF COHERENCE: CONNECTIVES. - EXERCISE 59.

123. Plan of Procedure. - We have now seen the necessity of choosing satisfactory words and the necessity of combining them into correct and pleasing sentences. It remains for us to learn how sentences may be combined into paragraphs, and paragraphs into longer compositions. The word, the sentence, the paragraph, and the whole composition may be properly regarded as an ascending series. A sentence combines words; a paragraph, sentences; and a whole composition, paragraphs.

124. The Importance of the Paragraph. - From one point of view, a paragraph is a group of sentences in which a single topic is developed. But as a paragraph is usually one of a series of paragraphs, together constituting a whole composition, it is, from another point of view, a logical division of a larger

topic, treated separately. When we see a paragraph, therefore, we suppose that the sentences in it are placed together because we can thus best understand and appreciate the logical development of the author's thought.

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125. The Paragraph by Itself. We shall see later (Chapter XIII) what principles govern the paragraph when it is a logical part of a larger piece of writing. We are now concerned with the paragraph standing by itself. If we turn to the editorial page of a good newspaper, we shall see that there are several short articles there of a paragraph each. These one-paragraph editorials will serve as good examples of paragraphs complete in themselves. They are really little essays. Each has as its basis a single definite idea, and this idea, omitting all unnecessary details, it expresses in not more than two hundred words or SO. The idea thus expressed must be a simple one, a single point, in fact, which the writer thus impresses clearly on the reader's mind. If we compare these one-paragraph editorials with the more important editorials, or "leaders," which consist usually of several paragraphs, we shall understand how important it is that larger ideas, or ideas. involving several "points," each of which needs separate explanation or discussion, should be expressed in a series of paragraphs rather than in a single paragraph. At this stage in his training it is necessary that, so far as possible, the student should confine his compositions to single paragraphs, each

complete in itself, trying in each to make one point and one point alone, and to make that point so clear and striking that one cannot help understanding its meaning and appreciating its force.1

126. Unity, Emphasis, and Coherence. In discussing the arrangement of words in a sentence, we made use of three principles of composition,―unity, emphasis, and coherence. These three principles apply equally well to the paragraph, or, indeed, to any piece of writing which may be considered as complete in itself. Unity demands that words be so arranged as to express a single idea; emphasis, that they be so arranged as to give prominence to the more important parts of the idea; coherence, that they be so arranged that their mutual relations can be clearly and quickly recognized. In other words, every piece of good writing must centre about a single point (unity); that point must stand out clearly (emphasis); all the necessary details bearing on the point must be so arranged and bound together that they shall form a chain, as it were, of thought (coherence).

127. Unity. Unity demands that a paragraph express a single idea.

Examples:

(a) "It is evident that the United States Government does not intend to let the claim against Turkey fall into abeyance through lack of energy. Another despatch has been sent to our Minister at Constantinople, asking him to urge more

1 After studying this section the student should do the writing required in Exercise 57, part I.

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