EXERCISE 132.

Fill in details at the places indicated in the following:

There has been no period of time in which wealth has been more sensible of its duties than now. It builds hospitals. [Tell other things that it does.] One of the advantages of accumulated wealth and of the leisure it renders possible, is that people have time to think of the wants and sorrows of their fellows. Thinking on the needs of the poor will lead the rich to greater benevolence than the world has yet known. [Other results.]

When we see what a wonderful instrument the hand is, I think we are great fools for not learning to use it better. A parrot can make a use of his beak and feet, which are also hands, in a way that puts us to shame. [Tell what a dog can do with his mouth and fore paws.] Some people can do little more than dress and undress themselves and bring food and drink to the mouth, which does the rest. Boys, without being taught except by other boys, learn to use feet and hands in many ways, and they amuse themselves and learn at the same time. [Tell how the hands, eyes, and feet are educated by games played according to rules.] I hope I shall be excused if I say that boys' play is sometimes the best thing that they do at school.

EXERCISE 133.

Interpret one of the following quotations, and comment on the thought, bringing out fully all that it means or suggests to you.

1. If youth is not right in its conclusions about this life, there is a strong probability that age is not much more so.

2. It takes two to make a quarrel.

3. Opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.
4. The eye is the great instrument of acquiring knowledge.

5. Writing is a part of drawing.

6. In the savage state, robbery stands in the place of taxation. 7. Parting is a kind of death.

8. Let the great world spin forever down the ringing grooves of change. TENNYSON: Locksley Hall.

Expand the following according to the directions printed within the brackets:

66

1. I do not believe in violent changes. [Expand “violent” to a clause.] Nor do I expect violent changes. [Express this idea in other words at greater length.] Things in possession [repeat in an explanatory clause or two "things which," etc.] have a very firm grip. [Insert a sentence, beginning They hold society," etc.] One of the strongest cements of society [substitute for "society" another expression of greater length] is the conviction of mankind that the state of things into which they are born is a part of the order of the universe. [Add a comparison: "as natural as," etc.] It is a conviction that they will not surrender except on compulsion; and a wise society [further characterize "society," "a society which," etc.] should look to it that this compulsion be not put upon them. [Add "should guard against," etc.]

2. Lord Brougham and many others think that dreaming occurs only between sleeping and waking, - the stepping of the soul into or out of the land of forgetfulness, and that it is momentary in its essence and action, though ranging over a lifetime or more. [A poetical quotation illustrating the brevity of the dream-period.] There is much in favor of this. One hopes the soul [a brief quotation expressing the nimble, ethereal character of the soul] may sometimes sleep the dreamless sleep of health, as well as its tired drudge.

3. It is a beautiful morning in June, - so beautiful that I almost fancy myself in Spain. The tessellated shadow of the honeysuckle lies motionless upon the floor, as if it were a figure in the carpet; and through the open window comes the fragrance of the wildbrier and the mock-orange, remindi one of that soft, sunny clime

where the very air is laden, like the bee, with sweetness, and the south wind [a poetical quotation descriptive of the south wind]. The birds are carolling in the trees, and their shadows flit across the window as they dart to and fro in the sunshine, while the murmur of the bee, the cooing of doves from the eaves, and the whirring of a little humming-bird that has its nest in the honeysuckle, send up a sound of joy to meet the rising sun.

EXERCISE 135.

Study the following closely and write fully what it suggests to you. Give all that it implies as well as all that it expresses.

On First Looking into Chapman's Homer.
Much have I travell'd in the realms of gold,
And many goodly states and kingdoms seen:
Round many western islands have I been
Which bards in fealty to Apollo hold.
Oft of one wide expanse had I been told

That deep-brow'd Homer ruled as his demesne :
Yet did I never breathe its pure serene

Till I heard Chapman speak out loud and bold :
Then felt I like some watcher of the skies
When a new planet swims into his ken;
Or like stout Cortez when with eagle eyes
He stared at the Pacific-and all his men
Look'd at each other with a wild surmise -
Silent, upon a peak in Darien. — KEATS.

[The following questions will be found suggestive: What were the "realms of gold" in which Keats feigned to have travelled? What is meant by "western islands," and in what sense are they held by bards in fealty to Apollo? Over what realm can Homer be said to rule? What reason for calling him " deep-browed"? What is suggested to you by "pure serene," and how is it appropriate as applied to Homer's poetry? In what sense do the verses in Chapman's Homer "speak out loud and bold"? Read the following from Robertson's History of America, which was one of

of

Keats's school-books, and consider how the "wild surmise Balboa's men could properly be compared to the poet's feelings on first seeing Chapman's translation of Homer: "At length the Indians assured them that from the top of the next mountain they should discover the ocean which was the object of their wishes. When, with infinite toil, they had climbed up the greater part of that steep ascent, Balboa [not Cortez: Keats's memory played him false] commanded his men to halt, and advanced alone to the summit, that he might be the first who should enjoy a spectacle which he had so long desired. As soon as he beheld the South Sea stretching in endless prospect below him, he fell on his knees, and, lifting up his hands to heaven, returned thanks to God, who had conducted him to a discovery so beneficial to his country, and so honorable to himself. His followers, observing his transports of joy, rushed forward to join in his wonder, exultation, and gratitude."]

LESSON 37.

Condensation.

A process the direct opposite of expansion is necessary when writing on the less important points of a paragraph or an essay. These need to be compressed into briefer com pass than the important points. One way of condensing is seen in the following paragraph, in which the writer has reduced a sentence to a participial construction attached to the next sentence. In the same way a sentence is reduced to a clause or phrase and attached to another related sentence.

ness.

Never did poet have a truer companion, a sincerer spiritual helpmate, than Mr. Bryant in his wife. Refined in taste, and elevated in thought, she was characterized alike by goodness and gentleModest in her ways, she lived wholly for him; his welfare, his happiness, his fame, were the chief objects of her ambition. To smooth his pathway, to cheer his spirit, to harmonize every discordant element of life, were purposes for the accomplishment of which no sacrifice on her part could be too great.

Sometimes an apt quotation, an allusion, or a proverb may take the place of a large amount of explanatory matter.

An eloquent scholar has said, that ancient literature was the ark in which all the civilization of the world was preserved during the deluge of barbarism. We confess it. But we do not read that Noah thought himself bound to live in the ark after the deluge had subsided. When our ancestors first began to consider the study of the classics as the principal part of education, little or nothing worth reading was to be found in any modern language. Circumstances have confessedly changed. Is it not possible that a change of system may be desirable? - MACAULAY: The London University.

Condensation in a paragraph or essay may be furthered by cutting out the parts that merely explain, or connect, or qualify the main idea. Such parts can often be spared without harm to the intelligibility of the whole.

The value of condensation appears when we wish to report for the benefit of one who has not read it the principal ideas of a book, a speech, or a magazine article. In this work the problem is to find the important thoughts and to report them with the same relative importance which they have in the original. The danger is that the latter part will be more condensed than the beginning. All parts should be condensed on the same scale. The following shows a condensation of a portion of a magazine article:

ORIGINAL.

After two whole generations it seems as if some increase of genuine reasonableness of thought and action in all classes of the population ought to be discernible. Many persons, however, fail to see in the actual conduct of the various classes of society the evidence of increasing rationality. These sceptical observers complain that people in general, taken

CONDENSATION.

While it ought seemingly to be one of the effects of education to make people think and act more reasonably, there is no evidence of increasing rationality among the great mass of the people. They