in doing it he never tired and he never quit. On almost every day for three successive months he fought an engagement and won a victory against the armies of the South. Think of that, my friends! Think of fighting for three months day in and day out always a victory and never a defeat! Think of it, and point me out its equal if you can! with I say, and history proves, that Phil Sheridan was a veritable thunderbolt of war, an incarnation of energy and action, a cyclone of disaster and dismay, a wrester of victory from conditions which almost spelled defeat. All this he was and more. He was a thinker, a planner, a reservoir of resource, a master of detail. GLYNN: Sheridan. This passage characterizes General Philip H. Sheridan in a lively and vigorous fashion, summarizing the striking facts of his career and describing him in strong metaphors. The speaker was justified in using such expressions because he had given facts and testimony upon which to base them. Do not use strong language without having a solid basis for it. This passage was delivered at the unveiling of a monument of General Sheridan, and the speaker was awakening enthusiastic admiration for the soldier. In the exercises praise or blame as the facts demand. Subjects Describe a hero of Church or State: St. Francis of Assisi, Xavier, Damien, etc. Describe a great artist or scientist or writer: Describe a character met in life or fiction: A friend, a business man, Uriah Heep, Ivanhoe, etc. 5. In one respect Pitt deserved all the praise that he had ever received. The success of our arms was perhaps owing less to the skill of his dispositions than to the national resources and the national spirit. But that the national spirit rose to the emergency, that the national resources were contributed with unexampled cheerfulness, this was undoubtedly his work. The ardor of his spirit had set the whole kingdom on fire. It inflamed every soldier who dragged the cannon up the heights of Quebec, and every sailor who boarded the French ships among the rocks of Brittany. The minister, before he had been long in office, had imparted to the commanders whom he employed his own impetuous, adventurous, and defying character. They, like him, were disposed to risk everything, to play double or quits to the last, to think nothing done while anything remained, to fail rather than not to attempt. For the errors of rashness there might be indulgence. For overcaution, for faults like those of Lord George Sackville, there was no mercy. In other times, and against other enemies, this mode of warfare might have failed. But the state of the French government and of the French nation gave every advantage to Pitt. The fops and intriguers of Versailles were appalled and bewildered by his vigor. A panic spread through all ranks of society. Our enemies soon considered it as a settled thing that they were always to be beaten. Thus victory begot victory; till at last, wherever the forces of the two nations met, they met with disdainful confidence on the one side, and with a craven fear on the other. MACAULAY: Pitt. The force here is not so intense as that of other passages in this exercise. This passage comes from an essay, and the other passages from speeches. The paragraph is excellent for its order. The subject is stated first in general terms and then limited and defined until in the fourth sentence the topic receives definite and forceful shape. We see then the effects of Pitt's ardor on the army (soldier, sailor), on the commanders (general statement, then particulars), on the enemies (general, government and nation; particular, Versailles, all). The paragraph concludes with a pointed and balanced sentence. In the exercise describe a character by his effects upon a large body of men of different classes. Subjects Select choice effects, portraying: Father Matthew and his Temperance Crusade. Homer and the influence of the Iliad. An orator, novelist, or artist made famous by his works. 6. I catch another vision. The crisis of battle a soldier struck, staggering, fallen. I see a slave, scuffling through the smoke, winding his black arms about the fallen form, reckless of the hurtling death-bending his trusty face to catch the words that tremble on the stricken lips, so wrestling meantime with agony that he would lay down his life in his master's stead. I see him by the weary bedside, ministering with uncomplaining patience, praying with all his humble heart that God will lift his master up, until death comes in mercy and in honor to still the soldier's agony and seal the soldier's life. I see him by the open grave, mute, motionless, uncovered, suffering for the death of him who in life fought against his freedom. I see him when the mound is heaped and the great drama of his life is closed, turn away and with downcast eyes and uncertain step start out into new and strange fields, faltering, struggling, but moving on, until his shambling figure is lost in the light of this better and brighter day. And from the grave comes a voice saying: "Follow him! Put your arms about him in his need even as he put his about me. Be his friend as he was mine." And out into this new world as strange to me as to him, dazzling, bewildering both - I follow! And may God forget my people when they forget these. GRADY: To the Boston Merchants. The speaker wishes to show why the South loved the slave, and as he had just described the touching fidelity of his colored nurse, now he selects a particular scene where a slave's loyalty to his master is displayed. The repetition, “I see," gives the solemn tone of a prophet to the characterization. The descriptive words, the choice details, concretely depicted, the dramatic presentation of the conclusion, as if spoken from the grave, all these qualities accentuate the true feeling of the passage. In the exercises select the scene which will best characterize the virtue you describe and will best awaken the desired emotion. Draw on your experience or from history. Subjects Characterize dramatically and effectively: The patriotism of a soldier. The love of a mother. The devotion of a doctor. The courage of a fireman. The heroism of a policeman. The meanness of a bully. The ugliness of a drunkard. CHAPTER III INTEREST 23. Language is interesting when it attracts and keeps the attention. A reader may have voluntary attention by sheer force of the will without any aid from the language. The attention spoken of here is that almost spontaneous attention of the mind which responds to novelty and variety, wit and humor, beauty and sublimity, where fresh aspects of thought receive fitting and stimulating presentation. Various terms have been used for this quality of style: vivacity, elegance, ease, charm, beauty. The term, interest, keeps in view the mind addressed and seems more practical. Many of the means of attaining force are likewise interesting: metaphor, periodic structure, repetition, and all the so-called figures of speech, being novel departures from ordinary diction, arrest attention. I. Interest of Words 24. Use words that can be pronounced with ease and pleasure (harmony). Avoid an unintended succession of like sounds (jingle), e.g.: "Unmusicalest sentences confuse when words are not masterlily used but are abused, going jingling usually horribly." Prose writers sometimes have successive words beginning with the same letter (alliteration). Poets use alliteration frequently, but good prose writers are sparing in its use, reserving it for sententious expressions and for passages of special intensity. 25. Avoid expressions dulled from constant use (trite) or inserted through force of habit to fill up the sentence (wordiness). EXERCISE 7 1. The various action of trees rooting themselves in inhospitable rocks, stooping to look into ravines, hiding from the search of glacier winds, reaching forth to the rays of rare sunshine, crowding down together to drink at sweetest streams, climbing hand in hand among the different slopes, opening in sudden dances round the mossy knolls, gathering into companies at rest among the fragrant fields, gliding in grave procession over the heavenward ridges-nothing of this can be conceived among the unvexed and unvaried felicities of the lowland forest. RUSKIN: Modern Painters. The union of clearness and interest is well kept. The parallelism of the repeated participle keeps the thought clear, and the variety of constructions used after the participles prevents the attention from relaxing through monotony. Alliteration is present. The personification of nature, as here of the trees, by ascribing to them the actions of living persons, occurs often in Ruskin's descriptions. Personification should be used sparingly. Ruskin's early style is too ornate. Avoid his excess. Describe: The flowers of the valley. The course of a stream. The rolling in of the tide. Subjects The movements of a rioting mob. 2. Michelet's History of France is quite another thing. A man, in whatsoever craft he sails, cannot stretch away out of sight when he is linked to the windings of the shore by towing-ropes of history. Facts and the consequences of facts draw the writer back to the falconer's lure from the giddiest heights of speculation. Here, therefore, in his France if not always free from flightiness, if now and then off like a rocket for an airy wheel in the clouds, M. Michelet, with natural politeness, never forgets that he has left a large audience waiting for him on earth, and gazing upwards in anxiety for his return return, therefore, he does. -DE QUINCEY: Joan of Arc. The variety of novel pictures, which are used to express the same idea, make the passage interesting. Michelet's History is contrasted with another work of his, "a rhapsody of incoherence." Instead of |