tendency of the Revolution of 1688. — Macaulay: Sir James Mackintosh's History of the Revolution, p. 338. 3. AMPLIFYING PARAGRAPHS. [Lord Bolingbroke, in his Study of History, announces, in one paragraph, the fact that history widens our experience and corrects our narrowness. In the next paragraph he amplifies this idea by means of examples, as follows: ] Let me explain what I mean by an example. There is scarce any folly or vice more epidemical among the sons of men than that ridiculous and hurtful vanity by which the people of each country are apt to prefer themselves to those of every other; and to make their own customs, and manners, and opinions, the standards of right and wrong, of true and false. The Chinese mandarins were strangely surprised, and almost incredulous, when the Jesuits showed them how small a figure their empire made in the general map of the world. The Samojedes wondered much at the Czar of Muscovy for not living among them; . now nothing can contribute more to prevent us from being tainted with this vanity than to accustom ourselves early to contemplate the different nations of the earth in that vast map which history spreads before us I might shew by a multitude of other examples how history prepares us for experience and guides us in it I might likewise bring several other instances wherein history serves to purge the mind of those national partialities and prejudices that we are apt to contract in our education. - Bolingbroke : Of the Study of History, Letter ii. A Paragraph of Amplification expanding a Thought already hinted at. What may we imagine his own feeling to have been in this crisis of his fate? The thought of Edinburgh society would naturally stir that ambition which was strong within him, and awaken a desire to meet the men who were praising him in the capital, and to try his powers in that wide arena. It might be that in that new scene something might occur which would reverse the current of his fortunes, and set him free from the crushing poverty that had hitherto kept him down. Anyhow, he was conscious of strong powers which fitted him to shine, not in poetry only, but in conversation and discussion; and, ploughman though he was, he did not shrink from encountering any man or any set of men. Proud, too, we know he was, and his pride showed itself in jealousy and suspicion of the classes who were socially above him, until such feelings were melted by kindly intercourse with some individual man belonging to the suspected orders. He felt himself to surpass in natural powers those who were his superiors in rank and fortune, and he could not, for the life of him, see why they should be full of this world's goods, while he had none of them. He had not yet learned he never did learn that lesson, that the genius he had received was his allotted portion, and that his wisdom lay in making the most of this rare inward gift, even on a meagre allowance of the world's external goods. But perhaps, whether he knew it or not, the greatest attraction of the capital was that in that new excitement he might escape from the demons of remorse and despair which had for many months been dogging him. He may have fancied this, but the pangs which Burns had created for himself were too deep to be in this way permanently put by. - Shairp: Robert Burns, p. 39. A Paragraph amplifying the Thought stated at the Close of the Preceding. The secret of his settled unhappiness lay in the affections that he had abused in himself and in others who had trusted him. The course he had run since his Irvine sojourn was not of a kind to give peace to him or to any man. A coarse man of the world might have stifled the tender voices that were reproaching him, and have gone on his way uncaring that his conduct "Hardened a' within, And petrified the feeling." But Burns could not do this. The heart that had responded so feelingly to the sufferings of lower creatures, the unhoused mouse, the shivering cattle, the wounded hare, could not without shame remember the wrongs he had done to those human beings whose chief fault was that they had trusted him not wisely but too well. And these suggestions of a sensitive heart, conscience was at hand to enforce a conscience wonderfully clear to discern the right, even when the will was least able to fulfil it. The excitements of a great city, and the loud praises of his fellow-men, might enable him momentarily to for get, but could not permanently stifle inward voices like these. So it was with a heart but ill at ease, bearing dark secrets he could tell to no one, that Burrs passed from his Ayreshire cottage into the applause of the Scottish capital. - Shairp: Robert Burns, p. 40. APPENDIX E. RHETORICAL ANALYSIS. 1. Let each student read one of the stories, essays, or speeches referred to in the list below. The essays and speeches will be the best to begin the work with. 2. As he reads he should write in his note-book, (1) the theme of each paragraph; (2) the function of each paragraph, whether transitional, directive, amplifying, illustrative, etc.; (3) he should note what bearing each paragraph has upon the subject of the whole selection and how it carries forward the plan as a whole; (4) he should make from his notes a connected synopsis of the selection. 3. At a subsequent meeting of the class, the members report, the selections are reproduced orally from the synopsis, and any paragraph whose function could not be determined is read in full and criticised or explained by the class. 4. In the case of the longer selections, report the main points and make a synopsis of the whole selection; but determine the rhetorical functions of only a reasonable number of the paragraphs. The work may be done piecemeal, the student reporting a part of his analysis from week to week. Copy and bring into class for criticism and discussion whole paragraphs about which there is doubt when read. 5. For the first exercise let all the class analyze the same speech or essay. 6. The list given in Appendix C 3 (b) may also be drawn upon for this work. (a) STORIES. 1. Aldrich. Marjorie Daw. Atlan., 31: 407. 3. Higginson. A Charge with Prince Rupert. Atlan., 3:725. 4. Hale. The Man Without a Country. Atlan., 12 : 665. 5. Jewett. The Shore House. Atlan., 32 : 358. Scribner, 2: 252. Atlan., 7: 430. 6. Eggleston. Gunpowder Plot. 8. Hale. My Double and how he Undid Me. Atlan., 4:356. 9. Higginson. The Puritan Minister. Atlan. Essays, 191. 10. Howells. A Pedestrian Tour. Atlan., 24 : 591. 11. Higginson. A Night in the Water. Atlan., 14: 393. Nests. Century, 12. Burroughs. 4: 680. 13. Burroughs. 14. Bishop. Tragedies of the Signs and Seasons. Century, 3:672. Braxton's New Art. Century, 6: 871. 15. Bunner. The Red Silk Handkerchief. Century, 6:275. 16. Stockton. Wreck of the Thomas Hyke. Century, 6:587. 17. Janvier. Orpiment and Gamboge. Century, 7:397. 18. Foote. A Cloud on the Mountain. Century, 9: 28. 19. Jackson. The Mystery of William Rütter. Century, 9:103. 20. Boyeson. A Child of the Age. Century, 9: 177. 21. Clemens. The Private History of a Campaign that Failed. Century, 9: 193. 22. Matthews. Perturbed Spirits. Century, 10: 74. 23. Page. A Soldier of the Empire. Century, 10: 948. 24. Hart. Left out on Lone Star Mountain. Longm., 3:259. 25. Dodge. Pursuit of Knowledge Under Difficulties. Atlan., 5: 272, 417. 26. Thanet. Day of the Cyclone. 3:350. Scribner (N. S.), Harper, 77 : 181. Longm., 1885: 67. Recreations of Chris 27. Haggard. Maiwa's Revenge. 28. Harte. An Apostle of the Tules. 29. Wilson. Tale of Expiation. topher North, p. 33. Atlan., 35: 385. Atlan., 36: 316. Atlan., 33: 169. 30. Aldrich. A Midnight Fantasy. 31. Phelps. In the Gray Goth. 32. Jewett. Deephaven Cronies. 33. James. The Last of the Valerii. 34. Taylor. Who was She? Atlan., 34:257. 35. Stockton. Our Story. Century, 4: 762. 36. Aldrich. A Struggle for Life. 37. A Story of Assisted Fate. Atlan., 55:58. 38. Taylor. A Week on Capri. 39. Howells. A Shaker Village. 40. Lowell. A Pocket Celebration of the Fourth. Atlan., 2:374. Atlan., 20:56. Atlan., 21: 740. Atlan., 37: 699. 41. Hawthorne. Ethan Brand. (In the Snow Image, etc.) 42. Cable. Don Joaquin. Harper, 52: 281. 43. McCarthy. Wanted-A Soul. Harper, 52: 549. 44. Woolson. Miss Vedder. Harper, 58: 590. 45. Davis. A Story of the Plague. Harper, 58: 443. 46. Stockton. The Transferred Ghost. Century, 2: 43. 47. McDonald. The Portent. Cornh., 1: 617, 670; 2:74. 48. Gray. The Silver Casket. Murray's Mag., 2: 203. 49. Hardy. The Waiting Supper. Murray's Mag., 3: 42, 199. 50. Appleton. A Half-Life and Half a Life. Atlantic Stories. |