when, as at line 15, a slight break is intended to mark a wider transition. (Compare § 4.)

15. In the following paragraph, which has asyndeton throughout, observe the effect of abruptness.

But now, on the new system of travelling, iron tubes and boilers have disconnected man's heart from the ministers of his locomotion. Nile nor Trafalgar has power to raise an extra 5 bubble in a steam-kettle. The galvanic cycle is broken up for ever; man's imperial nature no longer sends itself forward through the electric sensibility of the horse; the inter-agencies are gone in the mode of communication 10 between the horse and his master, out of which

grew so many aspects of sublimity under accidents of mists that hid, or sudden blazes that revealed, of mobs that agitated, or midnight solitudes that awed. Tidings, fitted to con15 vulse all nations, must henceforwards travel by culinary process; and the trumpet that once announced from afar the laurelled mail, heartshaking when heard screaming on the wind, and proclaiming itself through the darkness to 20 every village or solitary house on its route, has

now given way for ever to the pot-wallopings

The Paragraph: Emphasis

of the boiler.-De Quincey: The English Mail-Coach.

Compare also the second example in § 19.

19

In revising for coherence, then, look first to the sequence of sentences, then to the indications of that sequence; and, except in the cases noted above, or in the rare cases where abruptness is desired, avoid asyndeton.

16. The principles of emphasis as stated in §§ 5-7 apply without modification to the paragraph. Of the emphasis secured by prominence of position Bacon furnishes a more striking instance in the opening paragraph of his essay on Ceremonies and Respects :

He that is only real had need have exceeding great parts of virtue, as the stone had need to be rich that is set without foil. But if a man mark it well, it is in praise and commendation of men as it is in gettings and gains. For the proverb is true that light gains make heavy purses; for light gains come thick, whereas great come but now and then. So it is true that small matters win great commendation, because they are continually in use and note, whereas the occasion of any great virtue cometh but on festivals. Therefore

it doth much add to a man's reputation, and is, as Queen Isabella said, like perpetual letters commendatory, to have good forms.

17. Of the emphasis gained by proper proportion of space an admirable example is the paragraph quoted in § 12. The proposition developed by this paragraph may be stated as follows: Since the American colonists are descendants of Englishmen, their love of liberty is fixed on this specific point of taxing. The part concerning English descent, being subsidiary, is compressed within ten lines: the part concerning taxation, being the main point, occupies practically all the rest of the paragraph, fifty-five lines. The last sentence, though summing up only this latter part, is skilfully made to close with a reminder ("these common principles ") of the former.1

'Professor Wendell's formula for paragraph emphasis is useful, but too rigid: "A paragraph whose unity can be demonstrated by summarizing its substance in a sentence whose subject shall be a summary of its opening sentence, and whose predicate shall be a summary of its closing sentence, is theoretically well massed."-English Composition, page 129.

Parallel Construction

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18. A particular means of paragraph emphasis is parallel construction, the balancing of sentence against sentence. It is most natural in successive expansions or iterations, or in an oratorical cumulation like the following:

Carry the principle on by which you expelled Mr. Wilkes, there is not a man in the House, hardly a man in the nation, who may not be disqualified. That this House should have no power of expulsion is a hard saying. That this House should have a general discretionary power of disqualification is a dangerous saying. That the people should not choose their own representative is a saying that shakes the constitution. That this House should name the representative is a saying which, followed by practice, subverts the constitution.-Burke: Speech on the Middlesex Election.

This last means of emphasis is somewhat too artificial to be commonly available. On the other hand, the first means, a strong close, is practically always useful; and the second, due proportion of space, is obligatory.

B. The Paragraph Considered as a Series of Sentences.

19. A paragraph is commonly defined as a group of sentences with unity of purpose; and though a paragraph is not primarily a group of sentences, yet ultimately it must be considered in this aspect. "In how many sentences shall this paragraph be developed?" is a question, not merely of the extent, but also of the manner of development. Compare the two following paragraphs:

For my religion, though there be several circumstances that might persuade the world I have none at all, as the general scandal of my profession, the natural course of my studies, 5 the indifferency of my behaviour and discourse in matters of religion,-neither violently defending one, nor with that common ardour and contention opposing another—yet in despite hereof, I dare, without usurpation, asIo sume the honourable style of a Christian. Not that I merely owe this title to the font, my education, or the clime wherein I was born, as being bred up either to confirm those princi