remain grammatically complete, are marked. “He (Burns) does not write from hearsay, but from sight and experience; | it is the scenes that he has lived and labored amidst, that he describes: | those scenes, rude and humble as they are, have kindled beautiful emotions in his soul, | noble thoughts, and definite resolves; | and he speaks forth what is in him, not from any outward call of vanity or interest, but because his heart is too full to be silent."

Advantages of each Form, and Cautions to be observed. The fitness of either type of structure is to be determined partly by the subject-matter, and partly by the prevailing spirit of the passage.

1. The great advantage of the periodic form lies in the fact that it keeps up and concentrates the reader's attention. This makes it easier to place qualifying words rightly, and is thus favorable to unity of structure, because all is grouped with reference to the suspended idea. Its general effect, when employed in large proportion to other types, is to impart stateliness and dignity to weighty subjects, and to light subjects neatness and finish. In impassioned writing it is often useful as regulating and moderating the reader's emotion, by keeping the tension of mind uniform until the culminating idea is reached.

The caution needed is, not to make the suspensive details too numerous or too abstruse; for suggestions on this point, see preceding, page 149. It is to be remembered also that weighty thought will, in general, bear the periodic structure better than light subjects; care is needed in the latter, therefore, not to introduce the period too largely, for the mere sake of neatness.

2. The loose sentence has the advantage of being more like conversation, and hence more easy, less formal. It is thus especially adapted to the more familiar kinds of discourse, — to narrative, letter-writing, popular addresses; literary forms in which any appearance of artificiality is out of place.

The term loose conveys no reproachful sense: the loose sentence is a type of structure just as legitimate and just as susceptible of artistic finish as the periodic. But it is the loose structure that is most naturally happened upon without effort; and the faults to be

avoided in its use are the faults due to slipshod thinking and careless workmanship, - namely, rambling incoherence and tedious dilution of the thought.

Combination of Forms. It is not to be supposed that either periodic or loose sentences make up the sole type of structure in any discourse. As a matter of fact the actual number of periodic sentences is much smaller than the number of loose sentences; and a comparatively small increase in their proportion is sufficient to impart the peculiar effect of the periodic style.

1. By the best writers periodic sentences are constantly relieved by loose ones; it would indeed be hard to find more than two periods in succession, except in cases where for some reason it is desirable to make a series of sentences studiously alike in plan. The requirements of the dynamic stress, as already mentioned, would necessitate variation in structure.

NOTE. - Observe how the type of sentence is varied in the following: first a rather long period, then a short intermediate sentence, and thirdly a loose sentence. The passage is quoted from Dean Stanley.

"And then, in the deep stillness of the desert air-unbroken by falling stream, or note of bird, or tramp of beast, or cry of man came the whisper, of a voice as of a gentle breath of a voice so small that it was almost like silence. Then he knew that the moment was come. He drew, as was his wont, his rough mantle over his head; he wrapped his face in its ample folds; he came out from the sheltering rock, and stood beneath the cave to receive the Divine communications."

2. Nor is it often that sentences are found conforming rigidly throughout to the periodic structure. The same sentence, especially if long, may begin with suspensive structure and remain periodic to a certain point, and then be finished loose; and often clauses in a sentence may be loose while the general type is periodic, or vice versa.

EXAMPLE. The following sentence, from Matthew Arnold, is strictly periodic as far as the word "opinion," and loose from that point on.

"I think that in England, partly from the want of an Academy, partly from a national habit of intellect to which that want of an Academy is itself due, there exists too little of what I may call a public force of correct literary

opinion, possessing within certain limits a clear sense of what is right and wrong, sound and unsound, and sharply recalling men of ability and learning from any flagrant misdirection of these their advantages."

III.

The Balanced Sentence. The principle of the balanced sentence has already been explained and exemplified under the head of Repetition (Repetition of Manner of Expression, page 164). When the different elements of a compound sentence are made to answer to each other and set each other off by similarity of form, the sentence is said to be balanced. The similarity of the balancing clauses lies partly in the grammatical structure, and partly in the alternation of emphasis. Antithesis is often employed as an aid in setting clauses over against each other.

NOTE. -The Balanced Structure has been so fully exemplified that only an example or two need be given here. In the following sentence the balance is effected both by similarity of structure and antithesis: —

"He defended him when living, amidst the clamors of his enemies; and praised him when dead, amidst the silence of his friends."

In the following observe that the material for balanced structure is supplied in the first clause, and the succeeding clauses are then balanced against each other : ·-

"On the rich and the eloquent, on nobles and priests, they looked down with contempt for they esteemed themselves rich in a more precious treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language, nobles by the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a mightier hand."

Advantages and Disadvantages. The balanced structure is easy to interpret and remember, inasmuch as the similarly constructed clauses lend emphasis to each other, and make it easy to fix the points that are of most importance. Besides, such a carefully built sentence, with its parts so ingeniously conformed to each other, is a pleasure in itself.

It is in the use of the balanced structure, however, that caution against excess is most necessary. Being the most artificial type of sentence, it should be used sparingly, and only where it is needed

to give a particularly striking expression to an important thought. While it is prominent, and thus apt, when often employed, to fatigue the ear, it is also very enslaving to those who employ it unadvisedly. From the irresistible craving for the familiar measure, there is a temptation not only to balance every thought, but to add tautological and otherwise questionable forms in order to fill out the sense.

NOTE. The inherent peril of the balanced structure is due to the fact that when once the writer is enamored with it, neither he nor his reader can surely tell how much of the statement is fact and how much rhetoric. Take, for example, the following sentence from Macaulay: "The work which had been begun by Henry, the murderer of his wives, was continued by Somerset, the murderer of his brother, and completed by Elizabeth, the murderer of her guest." Can we trust ourselves to this finely-turned sentence, without the impulse to allow something for the curious balance of ideas?

Balanced structure, antithesis (see preceding, page 102), and alliteration, are three devices of expression that may easily become a snare to the writer. The fanciful and artificial manner of writing called Euphuism, which had a great run in Queen Elizabeth's time, was a style in which these three devices ran riot. The following few sentences will give a little taste of the style of Euphues: "Therefore, my good Euphues, for these doubts and dumps of mine, either remove the cause or reveal it. Thou hast hitherto found me a cheerful companion in thy mirth, and now shalt thou find me as careful with thee in thy moan. If altogether thou mayest not be cured, yet mayest thou be comforted. If there be anything that either by thy friends may be procured, or by my life attained, that may either heal thee in part, or help thee in all, I protest to thee by the name of a friend, that it shall rather be gotten with the loss of my body, than lost by getting a kingdom. Thou hast tried me, therefore trust me; thou hast trusted me in many things, therefore try me in this one thing. I never yet failed, and now I will not faint. Be bold to speak and blush not; thy sore is not so angry but I can salve it, the wound not so deep but I can search it, thy grief not so great but I can ease it. If it be ripe, it shall be lanced; if it be broken, it shall be tainted; be it never so desperate, it shall be cured." And so on, interminably. A good example of the artifi ciality that is inevitable when the writer thinks of form before thought.

Definition.

SECTION THIRD.

THE PARAGRAPH.

A paragraph is a connected series of sentences

constituting the development of a single topic.

NOTE. - Mechanically, a paragraph is distinguished, both in print and manuscript, by beginning on a new line, and by indenting, that is, withdrawing toward the middle of the line, the opening word.

In narrating conversation between different persons, the form of a new paragraph is given to what each interlocutor says or does, irrespective of the amount or nature of the matter included.

The amount and comprehensiveness of the material included in a paragraph varies greatly, according to the length and character of the discourse, the office of the paragraph, and the writer's individual taste. Of a short production a paragraph may make up a large enough proportion to be a main division of the plan; oftener, however, it contains a much smaller section of the thought. And a paragraph that merely makes a transition, or proposes a single idea as basis for further development, would be much shorter than a paragraph of detail. What is of more importance than the length, however, every paragraph should have a definitive topic and structure, and not be left, as is too often done by writers otherwise good, to make itself.

76.

In determining the length of the paragraph, not only the topic a included, but the ease of interpretation and the appearance of the page should be consulted. Every reader can recall how often he has been repelled from a book by the mere fact that whole solid pages occurred without paragraph breaks; and how often he has been attracted by an open and easy-looking page. This is no mere whim. Extended paragraph topics are a needless burden to the reader's mind and memory; and it is the feeling that too much is demanded of his interpreting powers that causes his dislike of a Solid page. As a rule, paragraphs of over a page in length should be avoided.

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