PART II.

WHOLE COMPOSITIONS.

48. Related Paragraphs. Each of the paragraphs examined thus far in our study has been treated as a complete composition in itself; we have considered its nature, laws, means of development, and type of structure. Having thus been led, through exercises in the writing of single paragraphs and a study of paragraph structure, to a knowledge of rhetorical forms and functions, we are now prepared to undertake the composition of those groups or series of paragraphs which are called essays, themes, or whole compositions.

To the paragraphs which, taken together, form a complete essay, we may, for convenience, apply the term related paragraphs. In most of them the structure is not materially different from that which has been discovered in one or another of the various forms of the isolated paragraph. Like the isolated paragraph, most related paragraphs have distinct topic-statements which are developed in one or more of the ways already pointed out; the topic-statements, in the case of related paragraphs, introducing in turn the various headings and subheadings of the essay-outline. There are a few special kinds of related paragraphs, however, so different in form and function from any of the isolated paragraphs studied, that they require notice and illustration at the outset. What these forms are will appear from a comparison of the functions of the various sentences in an isolated paragraph with those of the various paragraphs in an essay.

A. SPECIAL FORMS OF RELATED PARAGRAPHS.

49. Regarded as sections of a whole composition, the various paragraphs have different functions to perform analogous to those performed by the different sentences of the paragraph. As the subject sentence of a paragraph states the paragraph theme, so the introductory paragraph of an essay presents, more or less distinctly, the theme of the essay. As transition words and sentences may be necessary, sometimes, to connect the sentences of a paragraph, so transition paragraphs may be needed at focal points in the essay to connect the paragraphs of the essay. Some words like but, yet, still, however, presenting a contrast, serve in a paragraph to arrest the thought and direct it into a different channel. There are paragraphs that serve the same purpose in the essay. A sentence may be devoted wholly to restricting, defining, repeating, amplifying, illustrating, or enforcing an idea set forth in a previous sentence. So in an essay whole paragraphs may be employed for restricting, defining, repeating, amplifying, illustrating, or enforcing the idea of a preceding paragraph. As there are certain expressions at important points in a paragraph to carry the thought back to the subject sentence, so there may be paragraphs in an essay that show the bearing of the thought of contiguous paragraphs upon the main idea of the essay. Of course these functions vary in different kinds of compositions, since the paragraphs are colored by the nature of the piece as a whole. In a given essay some may be absent entirely, not being needed for the kind of production in hand, just as in a given paragraph some of the means of development are absent. A few of these functions will be indicated and illustrated.

50. Introductory and Concluding Paragraphs. The object of an introductory paragraph is to segregate the ideas.

of the composition in hand from all other ideas. As this is nearly always apparent from a mere statement of the theme, the introduction usually needs to do little more than state the theme, and indicate briefly the line of development to be followed.

The main purpose of this book is to examine the lines and productions of such British poets as have gained reputation within the last forty years. Incidentally, I hope to derive from the body of their verse, so various in form and thought, and from the record of their different experiences, correct ideas in respect to the aim and province of the art of poetry, and not a few striking illustrations of the poetic life.-E. C. Stedman: Victorian Poets.

In a longer introduction the writer may set forth broadly the limits and purpose of the essay, chapter, or book:

Of those who in August, 1806, read in the English newspapers that the Emperor Francis II had announced to the Diet his resignation of the imperial crown, there were probably few who reflected that the oldest political institution in the world had come to an end. Yet it was so. The Empire which a note issued by a diplomat on the banks of the Danube extinguished, was the same which the crafty nephew of Julius had won for himself, against the powers of the East, beneath the cliffs of Actium; and which had preserved almost unaltered, through eighteen centuries of time, and through the greatest changes in extent, in power, in character, a title and pretensions from which all meaning had long since departed. Nothing else so directly linked the old world to the new-nothing else displayed so many strange contrasts of the present and the past, and summed up in those contrasts so much of European history. From the days of Constantine till far down into the middle ages it was, conjointly with the Papacy, the recognized head and centre of Christendom, exercising over the minds of men an influence such as its material strength could never have commanded. It is of this influence and of the causes that gave it power, rather than the external history of the Empire, that the following pages are designed to treat. Bryce: The Holy Roman Empire.

I purpose to write the history of England from the accession of King James the Second down to a time which is within the memory

of men still living. I shall recount the errors which, in a few months, alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. I shall trace the course of that revolution which terminated the long struggle between our sovereigns and their parliaments, and bound up together the rights of the people and the title of the reigning dynasty. I shall relate how the new settlement was, during many troubled years, successfully defended against foreign and domestic enemies; how, under that settlement, the authority of law and the security of property were found to be compatible with a liberty of discussion and of individual action never before known; how, from the suspicious union of order and freedom, sprang a prosperity of which the annals of human affairs had furnished no example; how our country, from a State of ignominious vassalage, rapidly rose to the place of empire among European powers; how her opulence and her martial glory grew together; how, by wise and resolute good faith, was gradually established a public credit fruitful of marvels which to the statesmen of any former age would have seemed incredible; how a gigantic commerce gave birth to a maritime power, compared with which every other maritime power, ancient or modern, sinks into insignificance; how Scotland, after ages of enmity, was at length united to England, not merely by legal bonds, but by indissoluble ties of interest and affection; how, in America, the British colonies rapidly became far mightier and wealthier than the realms which Cortez and Pizarro had added to the dominions of Charles the Fifth; how, in Asia, British adventurers founded an empire not less splendid and more durable than that of Alexander. - Macaulay: History of England.

A methodical writer will indicate in the introduction the order of the topics under which the subject is to be treated. This may be done formally by enumerating the topics, as in the following:

The National government touches the States as corporate commonwealths in three points. One is their function in helping to form the National government, another is the control exercised over them by the Federal Constitution through the Federal courts; the third is the control exercised over them by the Federal Legislature and Executive in the discharge of the governing functions

which these latter authorities possess.- Bryce: American Commonwealth, Vol. I., chap. xxviii.

A more informal mode of indicating the order of topics is seen in the following:

[The subject of the section from which the following paragraph is taken is "Political Institutions of Germany." The marginal note gives as the subject of this paragraph, "Want of National Institutions in Germany."]

It was the misfortune of Germany in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that, [Subject of section] with most of the conditions requisite for the formation of national unity, [Subject of paragraph] she had no really national institutions. There was [Subjects of sections and paragraphs to follow] an Emperor, who looked something like an English King, and a Diet, or General Assembly, which looked something like an English Parliament, but [Subject of paragraph repeated] the resemblance was far greater in appearance than in reality. - Gardiner: Thirty Years' War, p. 1.

In a description, the introduction frequently gives the total impression produced by the object described. A narrative introduction usually requires nothing more than the place and time of the story. A newspaper article narrating an important series of events usually employs the introductory paragraph for the purpose of giving a summary of the events detailed at length in the succeeding portions. In such an article, the introduction tells the whole story in brief, the remaining paragraphs being arranged in the order of decreasing importance. The following is an illustration of a news article introduced in this way:

Another attempt was made to-day to assassinate the Shah. While he was driving in a narrow street a bomb was thrown from a housetop, striking near a motor car preceding the Shah's carriage, which was some distance behind. The Shah was uninjured.

The chauffeur of the motor car and about twenty others were wounded. The Shah alighted from his carriage and entered the nearest house, which was shortly afterward surrounded by guards.