work. It is that nucleus-thought, expressed or implicit, which must be in his mind as a central point of reference, a constant determinator and suggester of the scope and limits of his subject. It is thus the germ of the whole work, the sum of the thought reduced to its briefest and most condensed statement.

Obviously, if the theme is an element from which so much is to be evolved, accurate and minute care is imperative in the first place regarding what is to be involved in it. And indeed this is what makes the determination of the theme the most important single step in the ordering of material; for, being the process of concentrating the whole thought into unity and shapeliness of idea, it compels a thorough meditation, analysis, and test of all its main features. By the time the working-idea is accurately determined the material of the discourse is easily in the writer's control.

The theme of a discourse is not synonymous with the subject. It is necessary here, therefore, before examples are adduced, to discriminate the two.

The Theme as related to the Subject. The subject is the general or class-idea on which the production is based, the most unrestricted answer to the question, What shall I write about? Thus, for example, one may write about the Anglo-Saxons, or about Self-Reliance, or about Free Trade, or about Modern Fiction; these are subjects. Evidently such subjects as these, as they exist unmodified, are too comprehensive, too general, for treatment. They contain no hint of one kind of treatment more than another; no indication of fitness to place, public, or form of discourse; no suggestion of limits or direction. It is clear that they are not as yet in shape to guide the writer as his working-idea.

Having chosen or received such a subject as the above, the writer's first natural question, How shall I treat this subject? leads, as the initial step of invention, to the deduction of a theme; that is, his first impulse is to re-state the subject in a practical form for use. Thus, for example, the first of the above-named subjects suggests naturally a treatment that merely gives information; further, if the form is to be an essay instead of a volume, the sub

ject covers too much ground; it should be regarded in one limited aspect; so it becomes, we will say, Domestic Life of the Anglo-Saxons, or, National Traits of the Anglo-Saxons. For the second subject a hortatory treatment would be natural; so it becomes, Incitement to Self-Reliance, or, How Self-Reliance enriches Character. The third may be viewed as an issue, to be decided, affirmatively or negatively, by argument; so broad also that it needs to be narrowed to a particular application; so perhaps it becomes, Considerations for (or against) the Adoption of a Free-Trade Policy by the American People. The fourth suggests naturally a critical exposition; so it becomes, The Methods and the Spirit of Modern Fiction.

From this it appears that the theme is the subject concentrated, by means of directive limitations, upon a single issue, so that it shall contain one principle of division, one definite indication of treatment, one suggestion of scope and limits. Observe, then, the theme is not a part of the subject; it is the whole subject turned in a certain determinate direction. The whole subject is acting through the theme; but its action is defined and regulated to suit the circumstances of the present writing.

NOTE. The necessity of following the suggestion of a theme instead of writing random thoughts on a general subject is exemplified in the following passage, by Cardinal Newman. It occurs in a lecture of his on "Elementary Studies," and takes the form of remarks on an imaginary thesis written by a young candidate for admission to the University. It will be noticed that what he calls by the popular designation the subject - "Fortes Fortuna Adjuvat" - is rather what we are here defining as the theme, while the subject, which the young man persists in treating as unrestricted, is more truly expressed by "Fortuna."

"Now look here,' he (the critic, a supposed Mr. Black) says, 'the subject is "Fortes fortuna adjuvat"; now this is a proposition; it states a certain general principle, and this is just what an ordinary boy would be sure to miss, and Robert does miss it. He goes off at once on the word "fortuna." "Fortuna" was not his subject; the thesis was intended to guide him for his own good; he refuses to be put into leading strings; he breaks loose, and runs off in his own fashion on the broad field and in wild chase of "fortune," instead of closing with a subject, which, as being definite, would have supported him.

"fortune";

"It would have been very cruel to have told a boy to write on it would have been like asking him his opinion of "things in general." Fortune is "good," "bad,” “capricious," "unexpected," ten thousand things all at once (you see them all in the Gradus), and ne of them as much as the other. Ten thousand things may be said of it: give me one of them, and I will write upon it; I cannot write on more than one; Robert prefers to write upon all.

"""Fortune favors the bold; " here is a very definite subject: take hold of it, and it will steady and lead you on: you will know in what direction to look.'"

Deduction of Theme from S bject. This, in any given case, must of course be left to the writer's tact and natural suggestive faculty. A few general directions may, however, be of service.

1. Obviously the same general subject, being capable of many applications, may contain an indefinite number of themes or working-ideas. What particular direction shall be given to the subject in the individual case is determined for the most part by the writer's view of what needs to be said and what he can best say; but also largely by present circumstances, as, for instance, how the subject has been treated before, for whom it is intended now, and what are the exactions of time, place, and form of discourse.

EXAMPLES. The following aspects of the general subject "Literature " are selected from three columns of such titles in Poole's Index to Periodical Literature:

Advantages of Literature; Ancient and Modern Literature; Literature and the People; Literature and Style; Literature as a Profession; Aspects of Contemporary Literature; Caprices and Laws of Literature; Cheap Literature; Effect of War upon Literature; Ephemeral Literature; Literature in Social Life; Individuality in Literature; Nationality in Literature; Principles of Success in Literature; Recreative Use of Literature; Toils and Rewards of Literature; Vital Principle of Literature.

The following are some of the titles under the article "Socrates":

Socrates an Ecstatic; Socrates and Aristophanes; Socrates and Christ; Socrates and the Doctrine of Ideas; Socrates and his Philosophy; Socrates and Plato; Socrates and the Sophists of Athens; Socrates as a Teacher; Character of Socrates; Dæmon of Socrates; Defense of Socrates: Socrates' Place in Greek Philosophy; Theology of Socrates.

2. The subject being chosen, an important question here arising is, How is the deduction of the theme related to the accumulation of material? Does it precede or follow?

It both follows and precedes. Before the theme is determined, the writer studies to get a point of view: by rapid discursive reading and meditation he collects a store of ideas related in different degrees of intimacy to his subject, but not yet classified and assigned to their relative rank. On these miscellaneous materials he is to pass a careful analytical judgment, in order to determine what he can use and what he must reject, and in order to ascertain their most significant direction for his use. Then after the theme is determined, the writer is seeking to fortify its various points; his reading therefore is by topics, and definitely applied to what is ascertained to be lacking.

3. Not infrequently the writer's later reading and thoughtwhat Dr. Bushnell calls "the arrival of fresh light"—may lead him essentially to modify the view he has originally taken of the subject. If so, he should not humor his indolence, as too many do, and tack on new and incongruous material as it happens: he should re-open the whole process of determining the theme, in order to get such a unity from the outset as will accommodate his latest views. It is due both to the reader's convenience of interpreting and the writer's sharpness of meditation that the theme should be exactly commensurate with the subject-matter.

4. A peculiar relation of subject and theme is found in the composition of sermons; where the subject, instead of being embodied in a word or phrase, is held in solution, so to say, in a text of Scripture. In this case the text, interpreted with reference to context, circumstances, parallel passages, and the like, contains not only the suggestion of the theme but also the condensed embodiment of material and often of illustration.

EXAMPLE OF THE DEDUCTION OF A SERMON THEME. - The following, quoted from Dr. Bushnell, who was renowned for his skill in drawing out the suggestion of a text, illustrates the text, the theme, both as title and proposition, and the process of deduction. The opening paragraph of the sermon is quoted.

Text, Luke ix. 13: "But He said unto them, Give ye them to eat."

Theme: DUTY NOT MEASURED BY OUR OWN ABILITY.

"When Christ lays it thus upon his disciples, in that solitary and desert place, to feed five thousand men, he cannot be ignorant of the utter impossibility that they should do it. And when they reply that they have only five loaves and two fishes, though the answer is plainly sufficient, he is nowise diverted from his course by it, but presses directly on in the new order, that they make the people sit down by fifties in a company, and be ready for the proposed repast. Debating in themselves, probably, what can be the use of such a proceeding, when really there is no supply of food to be distributed, they still execute his order. And then when all is made ready, he calls for the five loaves and the two fishes, and, having blessed them, begins to break, and says to them-Distribute. Marvellous loaves! broken, they are not diminished! distributed, they still remain! And so returning, again and again, to replenish their baskets, they continue the distribution, till the hungry multitude are all satisfied as in a full supply. In this manner the original command - Give ye them to eat - is executed to the letter. They have made the people sit down, they have brought the loaves, they have distributed, and he at every step has justified his order, by making their scanty stock as good as a full supply.

"This narrative suggests and illustrates the following important principle — "That men are often, and properly, put under obligation to do that for which they have, in themselves, no present ability."

Here the text expresses merely the kernel or lesson of the passage in which it occurs, and its teaching is made clear by a summary of the whole narrative, which summary is concentrated upon the lesson. The example is a more formal deduction of a theme than is usual in sermons nowadays; but the principle remains the same, however concealed.

Statement of the Theme. Being the working-idea, the theme must exist primarily for the use of the writer alone. This requisite is entirely apart from the question whether it is to appear definitely stated in the complete production or not; which question is to be decided affirmatively or negatively by circumstances. For his own use the theme ought in all cases to be determined in a definite and painstaking statement; for unless such a sharply defined nucleus exists, to which the writer may at all points refer as a means of estimating the bearings of his thought, the production becomes vague, rambling, out of symmetry and proportion.