1. The total defeat and virtual annihilation of the great Spanish Armada, in the summer and autumm of 1588, was a decisive event in the history of modern civilization. It decided beyond all question that England and the future English-speaking colonies in the New World should be Protestant and not Catholic. Had the issue been otherwise, — had the mighty army to be carried or convoyed by the Armada been safely landed on British soil, it is more than probable that England and her future colonies would have become Catholic and not Protestant.

2. Next after Drake and Howard the overthrow of the Armada was due to Hawkins. Indeed, without what Hawkins had done, Drake and Howard could have effected nothing; for it was owing solely to his care and skill that the vessels were sent to sea so sound in hull and rigging that they withstood the stress of battle and storm. He had also the sole charge of shipping and paying off the crews who so skillfully handled and bravely fought the ships. But owing to the changeable humors of Elizabeth in ordering the shipment and discharge of seamen, Hawkins's accounts of money expended were far from exact enough to satisfy the Queen. No one suspected Hawkins of peculation, but he was obliged to spend most of the fortune which he had won in his old buccaneering days in making up alleged deficiencies; and in a petition in which he described himself as a ruined man, he begged for a year or two of grace to set matters in order.

3. My last remark is on that notablest phasis of Burns's history, - his visit to Edinburgh. Often it seems to me as if his demeanor there were the highest proof he gave of what a fund of worth and genuine manhood was in him. If we think of it, few heavier burdens could be laid on the strength of a man. So sudden; all common Lionism, which ruins innumerable men, was as nothing to this. It is as if Napoleon had been made a King of, not gradually, but at once from the Artillery Lieutenancy in the Regiment La Fère. Burns, still only in his twenty-seventh year, is no longer even a plowman; he is flying to the West Indies to escape disgrace and a jail. This month he is a ruined peasant, his wages seven pounds a year, and these gone from him; next month he is in the blaze of

rank and beauty, handing down jeweled Duchesses to dinner; the cynosure of all eyes! Adversity is sometimes hard upon a man; but for one man who can stand prosperity, there are a hundred that will stand adversity. I admire much the way in which Burns met all this. Perhaps no man one could point out was ever so sorely tried, and so little forgot himself. Tranquil, unastonished; not abashed, not inflated, neither awkwardness nor affectation: he feels that he there is the man Robert Burns; that the "rank is but the guinea-stamp"; that the celebrity is but the candlelight, which will show what man, not in the least make him a better or other man! Alas, it may readily, unless he look to it, make him a worse man; a wretched inflated wind-bag, inflated till he burst, and become a dead lion; for whom, as some one has said "there is no resurrection of the body"; worse than a living dog! Burns is admirable here. CARLYLE'S Hero as Man of Letters.

4. It is by his poetry that Milton is best known; and it is of his poetry that we wish first to speak. By the general suffrage of the civilized world, his place has been assigned among the greatest masters of the art. His detractors, however, though outvoted, have not been silenced. There are many critics, and some of great name, who contrive in the same breath to extol the poems and to decry the poet. The works, they acknowledge, considered in themselves, may be classed among the noblest productions of the human mind. But they will not allow the author to rank with those great men who, born in the infancy of civilization, supplied, by their own powers, the want of instruction, and, though destitute of models themselves, bequeathed to posterity models which defy imitation. Milton, it is said, inherited what his predecessors created; he lived in an enlightened age; he received a finished education; and we must, therefore, if we would form a just estimate of his powers, make large deductions in consideration of these advantages.

MACAULAY'S Essay on Milton.

5. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had

learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever.

MACAULAY'S Essay on Milton.

II. Write a paragraph with the following topic sentence at the beginning; another with it at the end; still another with it in the middle:

I'd much rather lose my hearing than my sight, were obliged

to make the choice.

III. Write paragraphs, composing a topic sentence for each and placing it differently in each case, on:

My friend John.

My friend Bill, a contrast to John.

Tim, a friend different from both John and Bill.

IV. Compose paragraphs leading up to the following summary

Finally, I gave up the search in despair.

In short, I think the plan altogether impossible.

Therefore, we decided to remain at home.

We returned, all of the opinion that it had been a most eventful day.

UNITY, COHERENCE, AND EMPHASIS IN THE PARAGRAPH

Key and Echo Words. The three laws, Unity, Emphasis, and Coherence, which we have discussed in a previous chapter, apply, of course, with equal force to our paragraph unit. It is quite as important in the paragraph as in the whole composition to confine our thought to one subject, to see that the different parts of it are closely related and dependent one upon another, and to see that the salient features of that thought are given proper emphasis. If the paragraph thought is carefully developed step by step until it has reached its full extent, Unity, Coherence, and Emphasis will usually take care of themselves. Often, however, the system of socalled key and echo words is of great assistance. Suppose,

for instance, that we are given the following topic sentence:

He proved himself to be trustworthy in every sense of the word. Our topics for development might read somewhat as follows:

(a) Honest.

(b) Loyal.

(c) Faithful.

(d) Industrious.

(e) Temperate.

Here we see that each topic to which a sentence or more is to be devoted refers back directly to the key word "trustworthy" in our topic sentence, assuring us that we have been careful to observe the law of Unity. We see again that all of these different qualities are related to one another in such a way that the latter ones develop from the former. Honesty begets loyalty, loyalty begets faithfulness, faithfulness induces industry, and industry prompts to temperance. These words, therefore, have nothing foreign one to another; they stand, as it were, in a kind of brotherhood, and interlock or interrelate in such a way as to make the omission of any one a flaw in the paragraph as a whole. Moreover, by the repetition of these words which are all forms or parts of the key word "trustworthy," we have emphasized by way of repetition the very commendable quality of the person in mind. We have therefore carefully held to the three laws of Unity, Emphasis, and Coherence, and we have been helped to do this by the words enumerated. We call these words Echo words, because they echo the idea suggested by the Key word in the topic sentence.

Now just as we have within a paragraph the topic sentence expressed at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end, and the Key and Echo words; so also in the whole composition our

paragraphs may be so grouped as to give us topic and summary paragraphs. If, for instance, we were going to write a composition on the subject, Three Reasons Why I Like Jim Hawkins, the word "three" itself would indicate, perhaps, that our composition should contain at least three paragraphs. But it may be desirable and necessary to define Jim Hawkins at the outset and to enumerate briefly his admirable qualities. This we will do in an extra or topic paragraph at the beginning of our composition; likewise, in concluding, we may wish to emphasize Jim Hawkins' characteristics in some particular way, to drive home a lesson, perhaps ; in which case a concluding or summary paragraph would be helpful. If we like Jim Hawkins because he was loyal, because he was clever, and because he was brave, and if it is necessary for us to introduce him to our reader, and to conclude with some general final thought regarding him, our composition will consist of five paragraphs. These may not of course all be of equal length; indeed, one of Jim's qualities may interest us a good deal more than another and, as a consequence, we will devote a longer paragraph to that quality than to the others. It may take us but a moment to introduce our subject and to tell just what qualities in him we are going to discuss, and so our first paragraph can in this case be reduced to a few sentences. But whatever be our theme and whatever our purpose, we can make our paragraph serve us in form and size very much as we are going to make our sentences serve us in their form and expression. We shall study more of this when we come to study the composition as a whole. It is suggested here in order that you may know what is meant by topic and summary paragraphs when they are referred to later on. You will find examples of key and echo, by both sentences and paragraphs, on many pages of this textbook.