Elementary Composition · Part 19

Are there any questions that you would like to ask about pelota after reading this explanation? Do you feel that you would need to know more about it before trying to play? If so, remember to make your own treatment of the following subjects complete enough to satisfy a child in the Philippines, who knows no more about marbles than you do about pelota.

Exercise 130.--Tell how to play baseball; football; checkers; dominoes; basket ball; marbles; tag; hide-and-seek; drop the handkerchief; any game peculiar to your neighborhood. Explain how a field-day is conducted. What is a handicap? How do little girls play keep house? What do you mean by "playing Indians"?

Exercise 131.--I. Following the model below, give good instructions for learning how to swim, to sail a boat, to ride a bicycle, to drive, to shoot a rifle, a revolver, to fish, to run a sewing machine, to paddle a canoe, to ride horseback, to go on snowshoes.

Use a diagram, if necessary, and give all the information you yourself would like to have in beginning a new process, mentioning mistakes usually made by beginners and telling how to avoid them.

II. Tell as well as you can how to bandage a cut, how to treat a burn, how to make a road, how to lay asphalt, brick, or macadam pavements, how to shoe a horse.

The first thing in learning to skate is to be sure that your skates are properly attached to your foot. If you fasten them on with straps, do not pull the buckle too tight, as this stops the circulation of the blood and may end in frozen toes; if by clamps, see that they are very firmly fastened, or the skate may be wrenched off in some sudden movement, giving you a fall. Also be sure that the blades are sharp, as it is very hard to skate with dull blades. After you have attended to these matters, one of the best ways to begin is to skate with some one who is strong enough to hold you up, or if you cannot arrange this, to push a chair in front of you, until you have confidence enough to go alone.

The feet are placed at right angles to each other with the toes turned out and the body bent slightly forward. Each foot is then raised alternately and set down slightly on the inside edge. It slides forward of its own accord and this motion is increased by pushing on the other foot, which is at right angles to your forward movement and so does not slide. You should keep your feet perfectly level when raised and set down, turning the forward foot a little on the outer edge as it slides, and keeping the other foot turned to the inside edge. A great help in keeping your balance is to swing your arms across your chest, with each forward slide, to the opposite side from the foot which is advancing. Never look at your feet, as it is almost impossible to keep your balance when doing so. Look straight in front of you at a spot about level with your eyes.

There are various ways of stopping yourself. One is to dig the heel of your skate in the ice and turn the other foot sidewise. Another is to direct your course around a circle and to stop your forward pushing; but perhaps the best way is to turn your toes in, thus putting the line of your skate across the direction of your forward movement.

Try to take as long strokes as possible and not to use the right leg more than the left, keeping your stroke steady and even. Always lean a little forward in ordinary skating and far forward if you wish to go fast.

It is a good thing for beginners to force themselves to turn the advancing foot on the outer edge of the skate. It is a little more difficult to keep your balance in this way, but if once you become fixed in the habit of using the inner edge only, you will never be able to do any fancy or figure skating.

82. Exposition of Abstract Ideas.--All the exercises in explanation you have had thus far have been with regard to simple, material things, that is, things you can touch or see. There are, however, very many subjects which need clear and accurate explanation, but which deal with abstract ideas, with principles, or with emotions. These are much harder to write of than material things, largely because it is harder to think of them quite clearly in your own mind. This is not because you do not have all the information you need, but because you have never tried to think out clearly and analyze the knowledge that you have. For instance, if some one should ask you, What is cheerfulness? although you would feel that you knew perfectly well what that quality is, you might have some difficulty in expressing it.

83. Exposition by Example.--There are many ways to bring out the meaning of an abstract term. One good device is the use of examples. If it is someone in your family who asks you the question, you can give at once a good idea of what cheerfulness is by saying, "Aunt Kate is a cheerful person." But if you are speaking to some one who does not know your Aunt Kate, you must then proceed to describe the quality in her which you call cheerfulness. You will find this use of example a very convenient method of exposition.

Another device is comparison with something that is similar but not quite the same. In explaining the exact difference between the two you define the subject of your exposition. For instance, suppose you are asked by a child to explain the meaning of parsimony. You can take a word which he knows, like saving or economy, and by showing the difference between the two, you can give him a clear notion of the meaning, explaining that economy is wise and reasonable saving of expense, and parsimony is foolish and exaggerated saving. The following paragraph shows the use of this method, the author comparing cheerfulness to mirth.

I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of clouds and glitters for a moment. Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.--JOSEPH ADDISON: The Spectator.

Exercise 132.--Using this device of comparison, and adding to it examples, try to explain the following subjects:--

1. Courage. Compare with rashness or foolhardiness, using as example the character of Hobson as compared with that of a man who goes over the Niagara Falls in a barrel.

2. Joy. Compare with contentment, using as example a mother perfectly contented with her home and children, who is suddenly overjoyed by a heroic deed of a son.

3. Perseverance. Compare with obstinacy, using as examples a hen sitting patiently till her chicks are hatched out; and another sitting week after week on china eggs.

4. Extravagance. Compare with liberality, using as example a man who gives away so much to strangers that he has not enough left to care for his family.

5. Industry. Compare with drudgery, using as examples a man who carries stone for road-mending, and the military punishment of making an offender carry stones from one side of the road to another.

84. Exposition by Repetition.--Another good method of explaining an abstract idea is to repeat in several different ways your first statement or definition. First, you define your subject as accurately as possible, by telling to what kind or order of thing it belongs, and then by pointing out differences between this individual example and others of the same kind. For instance, you are asked by a child to define a snob. First, you give some general idea of the meaning of the term by saying, "A snob is a vulgar person with bad manners." But there are vulgar persons with bad manners who who are not in the least snobs, so that after stating the general order of the persons to which a snob belongs, you must separate him from all other varieties of that class. You go on, therefore, "He pays a foolish and exaggerated respect to social position and money, and cannot understand that a noble character has any value in a poor or uncultivated person."

You have now given a general definition of your subject, and one good way to proceed with your explanation is, as stated above, by means of repetition in other words of your first statement, thus:--

A real snob values the opinion of an ignorant rich person more than that of an intelligent poor one. He is fawning and meanly polite to influential men, and rude and overbearing to those who have no recognized position. A snob will run hat in hand to open a door for a wealthy woman of rank, and will not give a helping hand to a poor woman who has fallen down.

This sort of repetition serves to make perfectly clear the idea involved in your first statement.

85. Exposition by Contrast.--A further device in explanation is contrast, showing the ways in which the subject of your exposition differs from its opposite. The explanation of the snob might be continued by contrasting him with a perfect gentleman, thus bringing out more clearly the offensive qualities. Or, you might go back to the sort of comparison you used in explaining courage, perseverance, etc., and compare the snob to a person thoroughly rude, a boor, showing how he differs: the snob is rude only to people who, he thinks, have no means of punishing him for it; whereas a boor is rude to every one.

Exercise 133.--1. Bearing in mind these two new methods for explanation (repetition and contrast), as well as the methods previously explained (comparison and examples), explain the use and value of the study of geography, arithmetic, history, manual training, music, drawing, gymnasium work, military drill, sewing, reading aloud, spelling, a foreign language.

2. Explain (as if to a boy or girl younger than you, who asks, "What is it for?") the purpose and value of the following:--

A debating society; a literary club; a nature study club; a "Do as you would be done by" association; amateur theatricals; athletic contests; an aquarium; zoological gardens; city parks; public libraries; foreign travel; picture galleries.

86. Exposition by a Figure of Speech.--One of the most forcible and graceful means of exposition is by the development of a figure of speech,--a simile or metaphor.

I consider the human soul without education like marble in the quarry, which shows none of its inherent beauties until the skill of the polisher fetches out the colors, makes the surface shine, and discovers every ornamental cloud, spot, and vein that runs through the body of it. Education, after the same manner, when it works upon a noble mind, draws out to view every latent virtue and perfection, which without such helps are never able to make their appearance.... Aristotle tells us that a statue lies hid in a block of marble, and that the art of the statuary only clears away superfluous matter and removes the rubbish. The figure is in the stone; the sculptor only finds it. What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to a human soul. The philosopher, the saint, the hero, the wise, the good, or the great man, very often lie hid and concealed in a plebeian, which a proper education might have disinterred and brought to light.--JOSEPH ADDISON: The Spectator.

Exercise 134.--I. Proverbs are really only figures of speech, and explanation of these should be based to some degree on the model above. Try to explain fully, as if to your younger brother or sister, the true meaning of any of the following expressions, using all the devices for exposition which you have been studying. Think carefully before you begin to write and make sure that you fully grasp the real meaning. You will find examples and anecdotes illustrating your point particularly useful in this sort of explanation.

1. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. 2. Don't count your chickens before they are hatched. 3. A rolling stone gathers no moss. 4. The more haste the less speed. 5. Birds of a feather flock together. 6. Better an empty house than a bad tenant. 7. Make hay while the sun shines. 8. Enough is as good as a feast. 9. A burned child dreads the fire. 10. Strike while the iron is hot. 11. He laughs best who laughs last. 12. He that lives in a glass house should not throw stones. 13. Necessity is the mother of invention.

II. Expound in the same way the following quotations, as if you were trying to give a full realization of all that they mean to some one who sees them for the first time and does not quite understand them:--

1. Sweet are the uses of adversity.--SHAKSPERE. 2. He who loses wealth loses much; he who loses a friend loses more; but he who loses his courage loses all.--CERVANTES. 3. He who knows most, grieves most for wasted time.--DANTE. 4. The wicked flee when no man pursueth. 5. A soft answer turneth away wrath. 6. A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. 7. Books are the best things well used; abused, among the worst.--EMERSON. 8. Charity is a virtue of the heart, not of the hands.

Exercise 135.--I. Try to explain what Washington's Birthday means to us; St. Valentine's Day; April Fool's Day; Commencement Day at a school; Arbor Day; Thanksgiving Day; Christmas; New Year's; Labor Day; Fourth of July; Decoration Day. An exposition of this sort may be very straightforward and simple, only a paragraph long, or it may be as elaborate a composition as you can make it; but in either case you should try to express sincerely the deep feeling which underlies most of these festivals. Choose some favorite of yours in the above list and try to express why you are fond of it and impressed by it.

II. Following the same method, look up the facts in regard to some foreign customs, and write an explanation of what you imagine to be the feeling underlying All Souls' Day in Paris; the pilgrimage to Mecca of the Mohammedans; the pilgrimage in India to the Ganges; cherry-blossoming time in Japan; Primrose Day in England; the Fourteenth of July in France; and other festivals of which you can learn.

CHAPTER XIV

ARGUMENT

87. General Principle.--There is probably no form of expression with which you are more practically acquainted than argumentation, both from using it yourself and from having it employed on you. If you go to college, you will study the theory of it in connection with logic and you will have a great many hard names to learn and a complicated system to understand; but, as a matter of fact, you find now that if you greatly care to have something done or not done, you will instinctively find reasons for supporting your views. You did this even as a little child, when you wished to do something your parents did not think advisable, or to be excused from doing something they desired you to do. Although this may be the first time you have consciously thought of argument as a form of composition, you must have had a great deal of practical experience in it.

It has been pointed out several times in this book that the very first thing to consider in any form of expression is the reader to whom you address yourself. Owing to the frequent practical use you have made of argument in conversation, this will be easy for you to remember when you now come to write it. That is, you are so used to making your arguments suit the persons you are trying to persuade, that you do it instinctively. Even a little child puts forth different reasons for action when trying to persuade his mother from those which he would put forth when trying to persuade a playfellow; and you feel, without the necessity of stopping to think at all, that you should use different arguments with your mother from those which would be likely to convince your teacher.

But the next step in composing, which has been mentioned throughout the book, is more necessary in argumentation than in any other form of expression. You must not only have an outline in mind for what you are about to say, but that outline should be written, and almost as much time and thought should be given to it as to the composition itself; for clear thought is the great essential in argumentation, and a carefully prepared outline is the greatest help to clear thought.

88. The Introduction.--There are three parts to every outline for a discussion or argument. First comes the introduction, or statement of the subject. To write this clearly, you need to remember the principles of exposition, because often the introduction to an argument is merely a clear exposition of the subject. It is very necessary to be perfectly clear in this introduction, so that your reader may have a definite idea of what it is you are about to discuss. Sometimes people discuss at great length, only to find that from neglect to state the subject clearly they have been arguing about quite different questions. For instance, suppose that the following subject is selected for a discussion: Pupils under fifteen years of age should not be taken out of school to earn money for their families. The statement and full exposition of the subject in the introduction to the argument should exclude cases where there is no other possible source of income for the family; otherwise you and your opponent may be discussing a question about which you really agree.

In your introduction, therefore, give first a perfectly plain statement of your subject,--what are the generally admitted facts about it (facts which even your opponent must admit), and what it is you wish to prove.

Exercise 136.--In the following subjects for discussion, see if you can pick out the place where the statement is indefinite and might lead to misunderstanding. Write one paragraph on each, defining, limiting, and making clear the subject as you see it, and another on the generally admitted facts in the case as distinct from the points which are debatable.