accordingly, is to consider the various sources of the tendency to conform. The Essay closes with a paragraph commencing with this sentence: 'A reasonable watchfulness against conformity will not lead a man to spurn the aid of other men, still less to reject the accumulated mental capital of ages'; and so the object is to make some practical observations against extreme ideas on either side.

rule.

Thus, all the seven paragraphs are introduced in harmony with the Helps, like Macaulay, manifestly felt the importance of such a preliminary indication of the theme.

UNITY.

20. Unity in a Paragraph implies a sustained purpose, and forbids digressions and irrelevant matter.

The Rule just expounded is unmeaning, except on the supposition that a paragraph has a set purpose, and adheres to that throughout.

Unity is violated in several ways. A common mistake, of the simplest kind, is to run on in one paragraph what should be divided into two or more. As with the sentence, so with the Paragraph, the only general principle that can be laid down, is to make the divisions at the larger breaks; and so there may sometimes be doubt in the application of the rule. But, when a Paragraph is allowed to become much protracted, the reader loses the sense of any unity of purpose in it, and the break, when it comes, is of little use. More rarely, the opposite extreme is met with the custom of writing in short paragraphs-of one, two, and three sentences. The object in this case is to give a look of greater importance to each individual remark; the effect, however, is to produce a disjointed style, and largely to nullify the paragraph division by reducing it nearly to the level of the sentence.

A more serious breach of the Unity of the Paragraph is caused by the introduction of unnecessary digressions and irrelevant matter. Take, as an example, the following paragraph from Dryden, on Translation:

(1) Translation is a kind of drawing after the life; where every one vill acknowledge there is a double sort of likeness, a good one and a bad. 2) It is one thing to draw the outlines true, the features like, the proportions exact, the colouring itself perhaps tolerable; and another thing to make all these graceful, by the posture, the shadowings, and chiefly by the spirit which animates the whole. (3) I cannot, without some indig nation, look on an ill copy of an excellent original; much less can I behold with patience Virgil, Homer, and some others, whose beauties I have been

DIGRESSIONS AND IRRELEVANCE.

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endeavouring all my life to imitate, so abused, as I may say, to their faces by a botching interpreter. (4) What English readers, unacquainted with Greek or Latin, will believe me or any other man, when we commend these authors, and confess, we derive all that is pardonable in us from their fountains, if they take those to be the same poets whom our Oglevies have translated? (5) But I dare assure them that a good poet is no more like himself in a dull translation, than his carcase would be to his living body. (6) There are many who understand Greek and Latin, and yet are ignorant of their mother-tongue. (7) The properties and delicacies of the English are known to few; it is impossible even for a good wit to understand and practise them without the help of a liberal education, long reading, and digesting of those few good authors we have amongst us; the knowledge of men and manners, the freedom of habitudes and conversation with the best company of both sexes; and, in short, without wearing off the rust which he contracted while he was laying in a stock of learning. (8) Thus difficult it is to understand the purity of English, and critically to discern, not only good writers from bad, and a proper style from a corrupt, but also to distinguish that which is pure in a good author, from that which is vicious and corrupt in him. (9) And for want of all these requisites, or the greatest part of them, most of our ingenious young men take up some cried-up English poet for their model; adore him, and imitate him, as they think, without knowing wherein he is defective, where he is boyish and trifling, wherein either his thoughts are improper to his subject, or his expressions unworthy of his thoughts, or the turn of both is unharmonious.

Here, the object of the first two sentences is to give a general statement of the nature and the difficulties of Translation. From this we pass off, in the third, to an expression of the writer's personal feelings towards bad translations; and this is farther expanded in sentences (4) and (5). There is no indication of what is the connection with the preceding sentences; and, in point of fact, the connection is but slight. The matter might either be omitted altogether or reduced to a short passing reference. A third alternative would be to place these sentences in a separate paragraph, prefaced by some such statement as this: A good original must not be judged by an ill copy'. The harm done by the digression would thus be reduced; but it would still prevent the first two sentences from being so closely connected as they should be with the matter that is now to follow.

The remainder of the paragraph is much better connected; the chief defect is, that the leading idea is not indicated. Whatever course may be taken with the digressive matter just referred to, these sentences should have a paragraph to themselves. If the digression were

omitted, this paragraph might be brought into connection with the first paragraph, thus:- For a good translation two things are required: a knowledge of English as well as a knowledge of the original'. If the digression were retained as a separate paragraph, then the point here discussed might be brought into relation with it by another sentence preceding the one just given:-'That good translations are few is not to be wondered at. For a good translation two things,' &c.

Thus the passage illustrates more than one of the above remarks on the Violations of Unity. It contains a digression whose chief motive is, not the exposition of the subject, but merely the expression of thoughts and feelings interesting to the writer. It includes matter sufficiently distinct to require the paragraph to be broken up. Moreover, it has also shown how the laws of Explicit Reference and Indication of the Theme tend to secure the Unity of the Paragraph.

The Unity of the Paragraph-or what may correspond to the Paragraph-is not strictly enjoined in Poetry. Digressions are permitted that do little towards enforcing the leading ideas, if only they serve the general ends of Poetry and are not so distant or prolonged as to interfere with the main ideas. The similes of Milton are constantly developed into pictures that have interest and beauty quite apart from the apparent purpose of their introduction. As an example reference may be made to the famous comparison of Satan's shield to the moon (Paradise Lost, Book I., 287).

CONSECUTIVE ARRANGEMENT.

21. The first thing involved in Consecutive Arrangement is, that related topics should be kept close together in other words, Proximity has to be governed by Affinity.

When an idea is put forward, the way to stamp it on the mind is, to give everything connected with it-iterations, examples, illustrations, and proofs-before passing to another subject.

This is like attacking in a phalanx, instead of in loose order.

PROXIMITY OF RELATED PARTICULARS.

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22. The nature of the subject, and the style of the composition, usually dictate a plan in the bringing forward of successive particulars.

This is most completely exemplified in Natural History. In describing a plant, there is a regular order that is never departed from. The effect is both to aid the memory, and to facilitate the comparison of the different species.

In popular composition, the usage is not so strict, but, when complied with, has the same advantages. In giving the character of a man, physical qualities have usually the precedence of mental; the intellectual and the moral are separated; natural gifts precede acquisitions. The following might have been intended as a caricature of mal-arrangement: My mother was passionate, with a strong mind and memory, of a low stature, fat, and pious'! Three classes of quality-physical, intellectual, and emotional, are given in utter disorder.

The following paragraph, by Macaulay, is intended to bring Hyder Ali on the scene. It is well arranged, with some slight dislocations:

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(1) About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan "soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars of "Southern India. (2) His education had been neglected ; "his extraction was humble. (3) His father had been a petty "officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering dervise." The second and third sentences should have run thus: "His extraction was humble; his father had been a petty officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering dervise. His education had been neglected." The propriety of this change will be seen when the next sentence is quoted.

"(4) But though thus meanly descended, though ignorant even of the alphabet, the adventurer had no sooner been "placed at the head of a body of troops than he approved "himself a man born for conquest and command. (5) Among "the crowd of chiefs who were struggling for a share of India, none could compare with him in the qualities of the captain "and the statesman." These sentences are in every respect admirable.

(6) He became a general; he became a sovereign." Emphatic iteration with balance. Though short, the sentence is properly completed, on the view of what follows, to which it is the comprehensive prelude, or theme. "(7) Out of the "fragments of old principalities, which had gone to pieces in

"the general wreck, he formed for himself a great, compact, "and vigorous empire. (8) That empire he ruled with the "ability, severity, and vigilance of Louis the Eleventh. (9) "Licentious in his pleasures, implacable in his revenge, he "had yet enlargement of mind enough to perceive how much "the prosperity of subjects adds to the strength of govern"ments. (10) He was an oppressor, but he had at least the "merit of protecting his people against all oppression except "his own." There is no call here for uniting two sentences into one; each contains a weighty and independent grouping of facts, enough for a distinct sentence.

The two last sentences of the paragraph show slight dislocation.

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"(11) He was now in extreme old age; but his intellect was as clear and his spirit as high, as in the prime of man"hood. (12) Such was the great Hyder Ali, the founder "of the Mahommedan Kingdom of Mysore, and the most "formidable enemy with whom the English conquerors of "India have ever had to contend."

The last sentence might follow at once on the conclusion of (10). It was time to announce the name of the great hero, without condescending to such minute circumstances as his age, and the state of his faculties. Still, the author felt that (12) is the climax, and that to add (11) after it would spoil the effect.

The following is a short example from a compact writer: "(1) According to the hypothesis of a moral sense, we are "conscious of the feelings which indicate God's commands, "as we are conscious of hunger or thirst. (2) In other "words, the feelings which indicate God's commands are "ultimate facts. (3) But, since they are ultimate facts, "these feelings or sentiments must be indisputable, and "must also differ obviously from the other elements of our "nature. (4) If I were really gifted with feelings or senti"ments of the sort, I could no more seriously question "whether I had them or not, and could no more blend and "confound them with my other feelings or sentiments, than I can seriously question the existence of hunger or thirst, "or can mistake the feeling which affects me when I am "hungry for the different feeling which affects me when I am thirsty. (5) All the parts of our nature which are "ultimate, or incapable of analysis, are certain and distinct