which you may apply to your paragraphs is to try whether the thought of each can be given in a single sentence. The paragraphs in the above examples may be summed up in the following sentence:

1. There are evidences of a heavy rain everywhere.

2. The public square is the meeting place for all classes of people.

3. It is evening.

4. The city awakens and the crowds of people again fill the streets.

Exercise

Sum up in a single sentence the thought of each of the following paragraphs. Consider whether the principle of unity has been observed in the writing of these paragraphs.

Rome was an ocean of flame. Height and depth were covered with red surges, that rolled before the blast like an endless tide. The billows burst up the sides of the hills, which they turned into instant volcanoes, exploding volumes of smoke and fire, then plunged into the depths in a hundred glowing cataracts, then climbed and consumed again. The distant sound of the city in her convulsion went to the soul. The air was filled with the steady roar of the advancing flame, the crash of falling houses, and the hideous outcry of the myriads flying through the streets, or surrounded and perishing in the conflagration.

Every change in America has occasioned a corresponding change in Europe. The discovery of it overturned the systems of the ancients, and gave a new face to adventure and to knowledge; the opening of its mines produced a revolution in property; and the independence of the United States overturned the Monarchy of France, and set fire to a train which has not yet fully exploded. At every expansion of American influence, the older countries are destined to undergo new changes, and to receive a second character from the colonies which they have planted.

Lovely art thou, O Night, beneath the skies of Spain! Day, panting with heat, and laden with a thousand cares,

toils onward like a beast of burden; but Night, calm, silent, holy Night, is a ministering angel that cools with its dewy breath the toil-heated brow, and like the Roman sisterhood, stoops down to bathe the pilgrim's feet. How grateful is the starry twilight! How grateful the gentle radiance of the moon! How grateful the delicious coolness of "the omnipresent and deep-breathing air." Lovely art thou, O Night, beneath the skies of Spain ! - LONGFELLOW. Means of securing Unity. In your writing you may find it helpful to adopt some plan for preserving unity in the paragraph. Before beginning to write a paragraph decide just what topic you wish to write about; then keep this before you as you write and do not put into the paragraph anything that does not bear directly upon this topic. Be sure, also, that this paragraph contains all you say upon this one topic or it will be incomplete, the material for a single paragraph being divided into two or more; and unity will thus be destroyed. It is often well before beginning to write to note on a slip of paper the different points or phases of the subject about which you expect to write, that you may make these the topics of your paragraphs. If you do this and then apply the test suggested, you will be able to secure unity.

Make topical outlines which you might follow in writing several paragraphs upon each of the following subjects. Select one of these subjects upon which to write.

A Rainy Day in the Country.

A Fishing Trip.

A May Day in the Woods, or the Park.

SECTION XVI

Emphasis in the Paragraph

Another principle that governs the making of a paragraph is emphasis. This requires that the important point,

the one to be emphasized, shall be given a prominent place in the paragraph, where it will catch the eye of the reader. The most prominent places in a paragraph are at the beginning and at the end. Emphasis may, therefore, be given by placing the important point near the beginning or at the end of a paragraph.

Topic Sentence for Emphasis. It is very natural when beginning to write upon a topic to state it briefly in the first sentence, and then explain, illustrate, or describe in the rest. of the paragraph what has thus been announced. The topic sentence is therefore a most effective means of securing emphasis.

In the following, notice how the important point of each paragraph is made prominent by stating it in the first sentence, and giving the particulars in the other sentences:

These Mound-builders must have been in some ways well advanced in civilization. Their earth-works show more or less of engineering skill. In figure they show the square, the octagon, the ellipse; and sometimes all these are combined in one series of works. The circle is always a true circle, the square a true square; there are many squares that measure exactly one thousand and eighty feet on a side; and this shows that the builders had some definite standard of measurement. HIGGINSON.

How changed is the scene from that on which Hudson gazed. The earth glows with the colors of civilization; the banks of the streams are enameled with richest grasses; woodlands and cultivated fields are harmoniously blended; the birds of spring find their delight in orchards and trim gardens, variegated with choicest plants from every temperate zone; while the brilliant flowers of the tropics bloom from the windows of the green-house and the saloon.

And man is still in harmony with nature, which he has subdued, cultivated, and adorned. For him the rivers that

flow to remotest climes, mingle their waters; for him the lakes gain new outlets to the ocean; for him the arch spans the flood, and science spread iron pathways to the recent wilderness; for him the hills yield up the shining marble and the enduring granite; for him the forests of the interior come down in immense rafts; for him the marts of the city gather the produce of every clime, and libraries collect the works of genius of every language and every age.

- BANCROFT.

Summary Sentence for Emphasis. The other method. of securing emphasis, instead of stating the main point in a topic sentence and following with the particulars, reverses the order; and gives the particulars, explanations, or illustrations first, summing up from these and presenting the point of the paragraph in the closing sentence. This is a method which is very effective, especially when it is desirable first to present certain facts to the reader that he may the better grasp the topic or thought of the paragraph. Sometimes in a long paragraph a closing summary is given, even when the main point has been stated in a topic sentence at the beginning, in order that the reader may be left with the point to be emphasized in his mind.

It is not always necessary to state the subject of the paragraph in a topic or summary sentence. Often the thought or purpose of the paragraph, particularly in narration and description, is so apparent that the introduction of it in the first sentence is sufficient to call attention to it.

In the first two examples below emphasis is secured by stating the important point in a summary sentence at the close of the paragraph; in the others it is secured by the use of both the topic and the summary sentence.

Looking back to the early dawn of the world, one of the most touching scenes which we behold, illumined by that auroral light, is the peaceful visit of the aged Priam to the

tent of Achilles to entreat the body of his son. The fierce combat has ended with the death of Hector, whose unhonored corse the bloody Greek has already trailed behind his chariot. The venerable father, after twelve days of grief, is moved to efforts to regain the remains of the Hector he had so dearly loved. He leaves his lofty cedarn chamber, and with a single aged attendant, unarmed, repairs to the Grecian camp by the side of the distant sounding sea. Entering alone, he finds Achilles within his tent, in the company of two of his chiefs. Grasping his knees, he kisses those terrible homicidal hands which had taken the life of his son. The heart of the inflexible, the angry, the inflamed Achilles, touched by the sight which he beholds, responds to the feelings of Priam. He takes the suppliant by the hand, seats him by his side, consoles his grief, refreshes his weary body, and concedes to the prayers of a weak, unarmed old man, what all Troy in arms could not win. In this scene, which fills a large part of the book of the Iliad, the poet with unconscious power has presented a picture of the omnipotence of that law of our nature, making all mankind of kin, in obedience to which no words of kindness, no act of confidence, falls idly to the earth.

-CHARLES SUMNER.

The winding course of the stream continually shut out the scene behind us and revealed as calm and lovely a one before. We glided from depth to depth and breathed new seclusion at every turn. The shy kingfisher flew from the withered branch close at hand to another at a distance, uttering a shrill cry of anger or alarm. Ducks that had been floating there since the preceding eve were startled at our approach, and skimmed along the glassy river, breaking its dark surface with a bright streak. The pickerel leaped from among the lily-pads. The turtle sunning itself upon a rock or at the root of a tree slid suddenly into the water with a plunge. The painted Indian who paddled his canoe along the Assabeth three hundred years ago could hardly have seen a wilder gentleness displayed upon its banks and reflected in its bosom than we did. - HAWTHOrne.

How universal is the love of poetry! Every nation has its popular songs, the offspring of a credulous simplicity