There is the insult, too, and the disgrace of the thing, worse than any damage to right-thinking men. On all these accounts, then, we must unite to lend our succour, and drive off the war yonder; the rich, that, spending a little from the abundance which they happily possess, they may enjoy the residue in security; the young, that, gaining military experience in Philip's territory, they may become redoubtable champions to preserve their own; the orators, that they may pass a good account of their statesmanship, for on the result of measures will depend your judgment of their conduct. May it for every cause be prosperous! CHAPTER IV COMPOSITION make sentences, sentences form para WORDS graphs, and paragraphs are developed into speeches. Words should be vital and instantly spring into position so that the thought may be quickly conveyed. They should be appropriate in that they may become the time, place, and circumstance in which they are used. They should not be employed for their own sake, but merely for the reason that they fit in properly with their fellows and adequately convey the speaker's meaning. Words are important on account of their expressive power, and this is greatly influenced by their location; as, Many times the attempt was made to stretch the royal authority far enough to justify military trials; but it never had more than temporary success. -JEREMIAH S. BLACK In this sentence the word "temporary" is important for the reason that it qualifies the word "success," and the ability properly to place words in a sentence so as to make them most effective in the performance of their duty is as important to the speaker as is the advantageous marshaling of an army to its general. A sentence should contain one complete thought, and but one, and this thought should be presented from only one point of view. By remembering this, speakers will avoid confusing their listeners, as a sentence containing one thought presented from one point is most likely to be clear. The mind of the speaker grasps instantly such sentences, sees all around them, as it were, and as quickly presents them to the mind of the listener. Students of speech-making are strongly advised to observe this rule of unity in constructing their sentences. Other essential qualities to the formation of good sentences are force and ease. Force is best represented in short sentences, and ease in long ones, although a sentence may, at times, lack ease because it is too long. A sentence that is so involved that its meaning is not instantly clear will lack in ease as well as in clearness, and is sure to be deficient in force. When a speaker wishes to employ force he should move from a weaker word to a stronger; as, Byron, Milton, and Shakespeare are representative English poets. When he wishes a sentence that is made up of a negative and a postive to be forceful he should place the negative first; as, A man is fed, not that he may be fed, but that he may work. RALPH WALDO EMERSON - When the object of the speaker is to be argumentative instead of assertive he should place the positive first; as, Territory, like other property, can only be acquired for constitutional purposes, and cannot be acquired and governed for unconstitutional purposes. - GEORGE F. HOAR Sentences should be feeders, thus suggesting other sentences. They should connect one with the other at both ends like links forming a chain. The essential qualities of sentences are correctness, force, ease, unity, and clearness. As there should be perfect ease in going from word to word in a sentence, so there should be like ease in going from sentence to sentence in a paragraph. In fact, a paragraph is much like a large sentence, the only real difference is that it is made up of sentences whereas a sentence is composed of words. A paragraph, like a sentence, should be a unit, and one paragraph should grow out of another exactly as sentences should do, and thus will the many paragraphs form the speech in the same manner as do the words form the sentences and the sentences form the paragraphs. The four forms of English composition are exposition, argumentation, narration, and description. Exposition teaches; argumentation convinces and persuades; narration tells; description shows. In oratory we have five classes: philosophic, demonstrative, forensic, deliberative, and social, and the four forms of composition may be employed in any of the five classes of oratory. Speakers, as a rule, use the narrative for the statement; exposition, argumentation, or description, for the body; and sometimes one form and sometimes another for the conclusion. A speaker might adopt the narrative form for stating his points, the argumentative for making them clear, and the descriptive for driving them home. EXPOSITION Exposition means the interpreting of a passage or a work, explaining and expounding its meaning, analyzing its parts, and laying bare to the reader or listener all that might be obscure. A splendid example of exposition is the following extract from The American Scholar, by Ralph Waldo Emerson: If it were only for a vocabulary, the scholar would be covetous of action. Life is our dictionary. Years are well spent in country labors; in town-in the insight into trades and manufactures; in frank intercourse with many men and women; in science; in art; to the one end of mastering in all their facts a language by which to illustrate and embody our perceptions. I learn immediately from any speaker how much he has already lived through the poverty or the splendor of his speech. Life lies behind us as the quarry from whence we get tiles and cope-stones for the masonry of today. This is the way to learn grammar. Colleges and books only copy the language which the field and the workyard made. But the final value of action, like that of books, and better than books, is, that it is a resource. That great principle of undulation in nature, that shows itself in the inspiring and expiring of the breath; in desire and satiety; in the ebb and flow of the sea; in day and night; in heat and cold; and as yet more deeply ingrained in every atom and every fluid, is known to us under the name of polarity - these fits of easy transmission and reflection," as Newton called them, are the law of nature because they are the law of spirit. The mind now thinks; now acts; and each fit reproduces the other. When the artist has exhausted his materials, when |