things at once, we cannot expect that what we have to say about any one of them will be given its proper amount of attention. Everything that is in the paragraph, therefore, should relate to a single topic, that is to say, to some particular aspect or division of the subject under discussion. The paragraph exists, in fact, solely for the purpose of dealing properly with these minor divisions of the subject; and that it may be effective, it should deal with only one of them at a time. Irrelevant matter, by distracting the attention of the reader, impairs the effectiveness of the paragraph.

Observe the effectiveness of the following admirably unified paragraph from Macaulay:

The perfect historian is he in whose work the character and spirit of an age is exhibited in miniature. He relates no fact, he attributes no expression to his characters, which is not authenticated by sufficient testimony. But by judicious selection, rejection, and arrangement, he gives to the truth those attractions which have been usurped by fiction. In his narrative a due subordination is observed: some transactions are prominent; others retire. But the scale on which he represents them is increased or diminished, not according to the dignity of the persons concerned in them, but according to the degree in which they elucidate the condition of society and the nature of man. He shows us the court, the camp, and the senate. But he shows us also the nation. He considers no anecdote, no peculiarity of manner, no familiar saying, as too insignificant for his notice which is not too insignificant to illustrate the operation of laws, of religion, and of education, and to mark the progress of the human mind. Men will not merely be described, but will

be made intimately known to us. The changes of manners will be indicated, not merely by a few general phrases or a few extracts from statistical documents, but by appropriate images presented in every line.

In this paragraph we have, first, a statement of the topic, and following that, a series of sentences, each of which in some degree helps towards bringing out the content of the statement made in the first sentence. No irrelevant matter is brought in, and no digressions are made. The writer keeps his eye on his topic, and devotes himself for the time being solely to the development of that particular topic and no other. Hence the effectiveness of the paragraph.

A good test of the unity of a paragraph is the exactness with which the gist of it may be summed up in a single sentence. Sometimes, indeed, it may be thus summed up by taking the opening and the closing words of the paragraph itself, as in the following paragraph, which Professor Arlo Bates has ingeniously constructed to illustrate the point:

In the work of shaping paragraphs the student should bear in mind all the principles which have been set forth in relation to the end and the beginning. These apply no less to the parts than to the whole composition. The paragraph should generally end with the idea upon which most immediately depends the thought of the whole. It should begin with that portion of the thought which best introduces the central topic of the paragraph, which very commonly will be the idea next in importance to that chosen for the end. The beginning and end of the paragraph will remain the most

effective portions whether the writer wishes or not. Something in the middle may be so striking that it will most strongly hold the attention, but this is exceptional, and even then this striking sentence will lose in force by its position. All this is connected naturally with the fact that in a well-wrought paragraph a sentence may generally be made of the beginning and the end which with tolerable exactness will sum up the thought of the whole.1

The gist of this may be very well summed up as follows: "In the work of shaping paragraphs the student should bear in mind . . . the fact that in a wellwrought paragraph a sentence may generally be made of the beginning and the end which with tolerable exactness will sum up the thought of the whole."

29. Coherence in the paragraph. - Good coherence in the paragraph is almost, if not quite, as important as unity; for the lack of it, like the lack of unity, distracts the reader's attention and hinders him from getting a quick grasp of the relation of the various details to one another and to the central topic of the paragraph. The various statements or assertions which go to make up the paragraph must, therefore, be grouped according to some plan; and the plan should be a natural and obvious one.

As an illustration of what a little attention given to the planning of the paragraph will do for its effectiveness, take this paragraph from a student's composition, first as it appeared in its original form, and then as rewritten under criticism:

1 Talks on Writing English, (second series), p. 118.

He was a man of no education to speak of. At the time our story opens, he was about sixty-five years of age, healthy and strong, indeed, for a man of his age, but the lines of his face were sharp and his shoulders had a stoop to them. The hard work and rigid self-denial which had enabled him to build up his fortune had left their mark upon him. In appearance and dress he was anything but pleasing. He usually wore the shabbiest of old clothes. Yet he was possessed of a not inconsiderable fund of worldly wisdom. Of late, he had been very lucky in certain business ventures, and was reputed to be very rich, though no one came near guessing how rich. He talked well, and in the heat of debate his gray eyes would light up in a way that went far to redeem his otherwise unprepossessing appearance.

Little or no effort has been made here, as is evident, to get the various details mentioned arranged on any preconceived plan. Details that are most closely related in thought are often widest apart. For instance, the remark about the man's lack of education, instead of being associated with the remark about his possession of a "not inconsiderable amount of worldly wisdom," is followed by a statement about his age and personal appearance. Incoherences of this kind abound.

In the paragraph as rewritten, these incoherences disappear, with a consequent gain in effectiveness:

At the time our story opens, he was a man about sixty-five years old, vigorous, too, for a man of his age. In the sharp lines of his face and the stoop of his shoulders, however, one could see that the hard work and rigorous self-denial which had enabled him to build up his fortune had left their mark

upon him. He was reputed to be very rich, though no one came near guessing how rich. Notwithstanding his wealth and position, however, he always dressed shabbily, not to say meanly. In his general appearance, indeed, he was anything but pleasing. Yet in the heat of debate, his gray eyes would light up in a way that went far towards redeeming his otherwise unprepossessing appearance. He had small store of what he called "book larnin""; but his speeches betrayed the fact that he possessed a not inconsiderable fund of worldly wisdom.

30. The typical paragraph scheme. All paragraphs are not, of course, planned in the same way. Nevertheless, there is a typical scheme to which the great majority more or less closely conform. This typical scheme may be outlined thus: (1) the statement of the topic; (2) the development of the topic; (3) the conclusion.

Observe how closely the following paragraphs, for example, conform to this scheme:

The great error in Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor. It could not be from the want of assiduity or perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar's lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble. He would carry a fowling-piece on his shoulder for hours together, trudging through woods and swamps, and up hill and down dale, to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. He would never refuse to assist a neighbor, even in the roughest toil, and was a foremost man at all country frolics for husking Indian corn, or building stone fences; the women of the village, too, used to employ him to run their errands, and to do