Note, in the above, the repetition of "the;" also its giving way to "they" and "their," and the repetition of "Sunday."

11. The Subject-Sentence, or Topic-Sentence.-In §7, No. 3, the writer is advised to prepare a skeleton of the paragraph, consisting of the subject and the several items. But this skeleton is merely for his private guidance. In actual composition he is called upon to make the subject, or some aspect of the subject, conspicuous in the paragraph. That is, he should express this subject, or this aspect, in a sentence or a phrase which stands out from the rest of the paragraph and arrests the reader's attention.

Such a sentence or phrase may be called the SubjectSentence; by some it is called the Topic-Sentence. A few examples from prominent writers will show how common and effective the device is. Note the italicized sentences. Thus:

Faith in God, faith in man, faith in work,-this is the short formula in which we may sum up the teaching of the founders of New England -a creed ample enough for this life and the next. If their municipal regulations smack somewhat of Judaism, yet there can be no nobler aim or more practical wisdom than theirs, for it was to make the law of man a living counterpart of the law of God, in their highest conception of it. Were they too earnest in the strife to save their souls alive? That is still the problem which every wise and brave man is lifelong in solving. If the Devil take a less hateful shape to us than to our fathers, he is as busy with us as with them; and if we cannot find it in our hearts to break with a gentleman of so much worldly wisdom, who gives such admirable dinners, and whose manners are so perfect, so much the worse for us. LOWELL: New England, p. 229.

Boswell has already been much commented upon, but rather in the way of censure and vituperation than of true recognition. He was a man that brought himself much before the world; confessed that he eagerly coveted fame, or, if that were not possible, notoriety; of which latter, as he gained far more than seemed his due, the public were incited, not only by their natural love of scandal, but by a special ground of envy, to say whatever ill of him could be said. Out of the fifteen millions that then lived and had bed and board in the British Islands,

this man has provided us a greater pleasure than any other individual at whose cost we now enjoy ourselves; perhaps has done us a greater service than can be specially attributed to more than two or three: yet, ungrateful that we are, no written or spoken eulogy of James Boswell anywhere exists; his recompense in solid pudding (so far as copyright went) was not excessive; and as for the empty praise, it has altogether been denied him. Men are unwiser than children; they do not know the hand that feeds them.-CARLYLE: Boswell's Johnson.

Carlyle's leading thought is English ingratitude to Boswell, but the full force is felt only at the end. The reader should bear in mind that satire is usually like a wasp: the sting is in the tail.

The following is not satire, but simple explanation:

Had the colonel survived only a few weeks longer, it is probable that his great political influence and powerful connections at home and abroad would have consummated all that was necessary to render the claim [to vast possessions in Maine] available. But, in spite of good Mr. Higginson's congratulatory eloquence, this appeared to be the one thing which Colonel Pyncheon, provident and sagacious as he was, had allowed to go at loose ends. So far as the prospective territory was concerned, he unquestionably died too soon. His son lacked not merely the father's eminent position, but the talent and force of character to achieve it: he could therefore effect nothing by dint of political interest; and the bare justice or legality of the claim was not so apparent after the colonel's decease as it had been pronounced in his lifetime. Some connecting link had slipped out of the evidence, and could not anywhere be found.-HAWTHORNE: Seven Gables, ch. i.

yet the explanation is not suggested until the end; whereas in the following the key-note is struck in the opening sentence:

In this republican country, amid the fluctuating waves of our social life, somebody is always at the drowning-point. The tragedy is enacted with as continual a repetition as that of a popular drama on a holiday; and, nevertheless, is felt as deeply, perhaps, as when an hereditary noble sinks below his order. More deeply, since with us rank is the grosser substance of wealth and a splendid establishment, and has no spiritual existence after the death of these, but dies hopelessly along with them. And therefore, since we have been unfortunate enough to introduce our heroine at so inauspicious a juncture, we would entreat for a mood of

due solemnity in the spectators of her fate.-HAWTHORNE: Seven Gables, ch. ii.

12. The use, the form, and the position of the subjectsentence depend in great measure upon the form of composition.

In Narration and in Description (see Chapters V. and VI.) it is usually impossible to introduce a genuine subjectsentence, for the reason that a narrative or a description usually consists of a number of independent facts-physical objects or movements—which cannot be summed up in a single statement. Yet even here the writer may select one object, one feature, one movement, and make it the centre of interest. Thus:

At the end of a lane there was an old, sober-looking servant in livery, waiting for them; he was accompanied by a superannuated pointer and by the redoubtable Bantam, a little old rat of a pony, with a shaggy mane and long, rusty tail, who stood dozing quietly by the roadside, little dreaming of the bustling times that awaited him.

Of the three figures, it would be easy to guess that the pony is the most important, even were we not to read the following paragraph:

I was pleased to see the fondness with which the little fellows leaped about the steady old footman and hugged the pointer, who wriggled his whole body for joy. But Bantam was the great object of interest; all wanted to mount at once, and it was with some difficulty that John arranged that they should ride by turns, and the eldest should ride first.-IRVING: The Stage-Coach.

In the description of Master Simon:

He was a tight, brisk little man, with the air of an arrant old bachelor. His nose was shaped like the bill of a parrot; his face slightly pitted with the small-pox, with dry perpetual bloom on it, like a frost-bitten leaf in autumn. He had an eye of great quickness and vivacity, with a drollery and lurking waggery of expression that was irresistible. He was evidently the wit of the family, dealing very much in sly jokes and innuendoes with the ladies, and making infinite merriment by harping upon old themes, which, unfortunately, my ignorance of the family chronicles did not permit me to enjoy. It seemed to be his

great delight during supper to keep a young girl next him in a continual agony of stifled laughter, in spite of her awe of the reproving looks of her mother, who sat opposite. Indeed, he was the idol of the younger part of the company, who laughed at everything he said or did and at every turn of his countenance; I could not wonder at it, for he must have been a miracle of accomplishments in their eyes. He could imitate Punch and Judy; make an old woman of his hand, with the assistance of a burnt cork and pocket-handkerchief; and cut an orange into such a ludicrous caricature that the young folks were ready to die with laughing. IRVING: Christmas Eve.

the clauses here italicized are paragraph-centres. They differ from the rest in structure; also, each states a general fact.

In the following:

It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavy-hearted and crestfallen, pursued his travel homewards along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him, the Tappan Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop riding quietly at anchor under the land. In the dead hush of midnight he could even hear the barking of the watch-dog, etc.-IRVING: Sleepy Hollow.

the sentence here italicized expresses the sentiment of the situation.

In the description of the burning of Canonchet's fort:

The victors set fire to the wigwams and the fort; the whole was soon in a blaze; many of the old men, the women, and the children perished in the flames. This last outrage overcame even the stoicism of the savage. The neighboring woods resounded with the yells of rage and despair, uttered by the fugitive warriors, as they beheld the destruction of their dwellings, and heard the agonizing cries of their wives and offspring, etc.-IRVING: Philip of Pokanoket.

the sentence here italicized is conspicuous by introducing the moral element into a scene of horror.

Note, on the other hand, the passage from Macaulay, § 3, where the subject-sentence is put boldly at the beginning. Examine also the paragraphs quoted in the chapters on Narration and Description, and in your own writing

do not fail to make some one feature of the object described, some one incident of the event narrated, stand out conspicuous in the paragraph.

13. Exposition.-From the very nature of this form of writing (see Chapter VII.), it follows that every paragraph should have a topic-sentence. For, since exposition is at bottom explanation-i. e. making the difficult more intelligible the writer must at least state precisely what he is trying to explain.

Usually the topic-sentence is placed at or near the beginning of the paragraph. But exceptions are not infrequent. Thus, in the following humorous explanation of Ichabod's perplexity:

All these [ghost stories], however, were mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and though he had seen many spectres in his time, and been more than once beset by Satan in divers shapes in his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put an end to all these evils; and he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of the devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together, and that was—a woman.— IRVING: Sleepy Hollow.

Irving makes his jest (see remarks on the passage from Carlyle, § 11) effective by introducing the cause at the very last. Woman is a general source of trouble, as Irving jestingly puts it. Moreover, the passage is not pure exposition, but borders on description. In the following extract, a perfectly sober passage:

In discussing the savage character, writers have been too prone to indulge in vulgar prejudices and passionate exaggeration, instead of the candid temper of true philosophy. They have not sufficiently considered the peculiar circumstances in which the Indians have been placed, and the peculiar principles under which they have been educated. No being acts more rigidly from rule than the Indian. His whole conduct is regulated according to some general maxims early implanted in his mind. The moral laws that govern him are, to be sure, but few, but then he conforms to them all; the white man abounds in laws of re