ning, your exposition will be desultory and unsatisfying. The first thing, therefore, to be sure of when you undertake to explain anything is that you have some such unifying understanding of the whole matter. In practice this unity is dependent on two things; in the first place it must be a unity wrought by a definite point of view, in the second place a unity wrought by a definite purpose.

The definite point of view is fixed naturally by your own individuality, and by your experience of your subject. I shall speak later of the effect which a personal attitude towards the subject has of giving the individual vital coloring which raises the explanation above the level of hack work. Now I wish tơ point out how naturally this definite point of view simplifies the task of explanation. In the case of Green's discussion1 of Elizabeth's character, his omissions and suppressions are by no means the only ones which could have been made: a Spaniard of her own times, as Green himself points out, held that "this woman is possessed of a hundred thousand devils," and his explanation of her would have said little of her taste for literature, her caution, and her underlying sympathy with the feelings of her people. The point of view being different, the simplification of the very complex character of this woman would have been different. The point of view differs, moreover, in relation to the audience to whom the explanation. is addressed. If Mr. Bryce's explanation of the American Commonwealth, for example, had been 1 p. 241.

written for Frenchmen, it would not have assumed that as a matter of course voters divide into two large parties; it would have had to explain the traditional habits of thought that make this division so inevitable in England and America. To begin with, then, see your explanation from a definite angle, and be sure that the people who are to read it see it from the same angle; by that very simplification you will go a long way towards attaining unity of your subject.

Besides this unity which you get by a definite point of view, however, you must also limit your subject explicitly. In many cases this limitation will take care of itself; an explanation of cricket, for instance, or of molluscs, or of the telephone, has perfectly definite and fixed boundaries; the mere naming of the subject prescribes the unity. But abstract subjects, such as justice or history or evolution or the American commonwealth, have in their mere naming no limit; not only may you discuss them in infinite variations of minuteness, but the subject itself may be narrowly or broadly defined. Accordingly, in every subject, simple or complex, never begin an explanation without knowing and saying just what you are going to explain.

The most convenient and surest device for attaining unity is the use of a key sentence, as it is called. by Professor Lamont in his "Specimens of Exposition;" there he recommends students to "begin composition by an effort to put the gist of the whole

1 "Specimens of Exposition." New York, 1896, p. x1.

explanation into a single sentence;" and he gives as examples of such key sentences: "A steam engine may be defined as an apparatus for doing work by means of heat applied to water;" or in Adam Smith's exposition of the division of labor: "The greatest improvement in the productive power of labor, and the greater skill, dexterity, and judgment with which it has been applied, seem to have been the effects of the division of labor." As a matter of fact, the substance of any good exposition can be reduced to such a single sentence; it will often be, as Professor Lamont points out, merely a definition which appears somewhere in the body of the explanation. The key to Green's exposition of Elizabeth's character is found in the sentence: "She was at once the daughter of Henry and of Anne Boleyn;" of Grote's exposition of the physical geography of Greece: "The configuration of the Grecian territory, so like, in many respects, to that of Switzerland, produced two effects of great moment upon the character and history of the people." The first act in writing any exposition, therefore, should be to sum up the essence of your explanation in a single compact statement; such a summary you will find in the common principle which underlies all your facts and brings them together into the single larger fact you are trying to explain. If you begin your work by being clear in your own mind of your point of view, you will find it easier to define your subject. In practice never fail to put this definition down in writing.

15. If your reader is to feel that this unity is an actual fact, however, your explanation must have some clear and logical arrangement. What this arrangement should be you can see in many examples. Darwin's "Origin of Species" begins with a short introduction, in which he explains carefully the arrangement of his argument, beginning with —

.

"From these considerations I shall devote the first chapter of this Abstract to Variation under Domestication; we shall thus see that a large amount of hereditary modification is at least possible. I will then pass on to the variability of species in nature. . . . In the next chapter the Struggle for Existence amongst all organic beings throughout the world, which inevitably follows from the high geometrical ratio of their increase, will be considered

.";

and so on, stating beforehand in the most explicit way the reason for the order of the chapters in the book. And Mr. Bryce in the introductory chapter of "The American Commonwealth" says:

"There are three main things that one wishes to know about a national commonwealth, viz., its framework and constitutional machinery, the methods by which it is worked, the forces which move it and direct its course. It is natural to begin with the first of these. Accordingly I begin with the government; and as the powers of government are two-fold, being vested partly in the National or Federal authorities and partly in the States, I begin with the National government, whose structure presents less difficulty to European minds, because it

It

resembles the national government in each of their own countries. Part I. therefore contains an account of the several Federal authorities, the President, Congress, the Courts of Law. It describes the relations of the National or central power to the several States. discusses the nature of the constitution as a fundamental supreme law, and shows how this stable and rigid instrument has been in a few points expressly, in many others tacitly and half-unconsciously, modified."

It is this division of the subject, clear and logical and sensible, that makes Mr. Bryce's work so good an example of the art of exposition. In general, it is safe to say that this power of finding logical and consistent divisions and arrangement in explanation is a pretty good test of your mental power. If you can think your subject out into its clear and logical divisions, you have grasped that subject effectively; if you cannot, your hold on your subject is weak. In that case strengthen it until in your own mind its natural divisions are palpable and unchanging.

When you can see your subject thus clearly and firmly, your next step is to make a plan for your whole explanation. This is something which, in general, it is wise to work out beforehand. People differ so much in their habits of thought and their methods of working that it is dangerous to lay down any one rule as necessary for success; every one, however, will find it profitable to try the experiment recommended by Professor Wendell in his "English Composition" of laying out