the cause for which the dead who fell at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives:

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civii war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting-place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this. But in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

- The Gettysburg Address, LINCOLN.

SUMMARY V

Emphasis is the principle of composition which requires that important ideas be so placed and so expressed as to catch and to hold the attention. To conform to the principle of emphasis:

1. Put important ideas in important places.

2. Arrange ideas in the order of climax.

3. Give to ideas an amount of time or space proportionate to their importance.

4. Express ideas in words which in themselves catch and hold the attention.

EXERCISE IX

Show how emphasis is gained in each of the following compositions:

A

Into the room walked a man of fifty, with a long, pale, pock-marked face, with long gray hair and a sparse reddish beard. He was of such vast height, that, in order to pass through the door, he was obliged to bend not only his head but his whole body. He wore a ragged garment which resembled both a kaftan and a cassock; in his hand he carried a huge staff. As he entered the room, he smote the floor with it with all his might; opening his mouth and wrinkling his brows, he laughed in a terrible and unnatural manner. He was blind of one eye; and the white of that eye hopped about incessantly and imparted to his already homely countenance a still more repulsive expression.

“Aha! I've found you!" he shouted, running up to Volodya with little steps; he seized his head and began a careful examination of his crown. Then, with a perfectly serious expression, he left him, walked up to the table and began to blow under the oilcloth, and to make the sign of the cross over it. "O-oh, it's a pity! O-oh, it's sad! The dear children . . . will fly away," he said in a voice quivering with tears, gazing feelingly at Volodya; and he began to wipe away the tears, which were actually falling, with his sleeve.

His voice was coarse and hoarse, his movements hasty and rough; his talk was silly and incoherent (he never used any pronouns); but his intonations were so touching, and his grotesque yellow face assumed at times such a frankly sorrowful expression, that, in listening to him, it was impossible to refrain from a feeling of mingled pity, fear, and grief. This was the fool and pilgrim, Grischa.

B

Childhood, TOLSTOI.

It was already dusk when we reached home. Mamma seated herself at the piano, and we children fetched our paper, pencils, and paints, and settled ourselves about the round table at our drawing. I had only blue paint; nevertheless, I undertook to depict the hunt. After representing, in a very lively style, a blue boy mounted on a blue horse, and some blue dogs, I was not quite sure whether I could paint a blue hare, and ran to papa in his study to take advice on the matter. Papa was reading; and in answer to my question, "Are there any blue hares?" he said, without raising his head, "Yes, my dear, there are." I went back to the round table and painted a blue hare; then I found it necessary to turn the blue hare into a bush. The bush did not please me either; I turned it into a

tree, and the tree into a stack of hay, and the haystack into a cloud; and finally I blotted my whole paper so with blue paint that I tore it up in vexation and went off to doze on the long sofa-chair.

It matters very little what immediate spot may have been the birthplace of such a man as Washington. No people can claim, no country can appropriate, him. The boon of Providence to the human race, his fame is eternity and his dwelling-place creation. - Everett.

D

Must I budge? Must I observe you? Must I stand and crouch under your testy humor? —Julius Cæsar, SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER II

ORAL COMPOSITION

PRACTICALLY, the form of composition in which skill is most widely useful is oral composition, because speech is the great medium of intercourse in both the work and the social life of the world. The need of skill in handling formal oral compositions like talks, addresses, lectures, etc., is so evident that the speaker naturally chooses his point with care and does his best to develop it so as to interest and to impress his hearers. In the less formal compositions of everyday life, however, like the remarks which make up the casual business conversation or the give and take of social talk, the need of skill is so disregarded that too often the speaker gives no thought as to just what point he shall make or just how he shall make it. He speaks at random, leaves out necessary details, puts in unimportant details, wanders from the point, or expresses himself in slipshod language. Yet it is in this less formal oral composition that skill in construction is of greatest importance to most people, because of the large part the ability to speak effectively plays in business and social success.

The kinds of informal oral composition in which skill is most needed are ordinary conversations, answers to questions, explanations, the giving of directions, and short reports.

Conversation. Read the following conversation, noticing that Mrs. Tulliver, first, by failing to suggest the point of her call, second, by introducing details in no way connected with the point, and, third, by using the wrong set of details, even though they bear on the point, not only fails to accomplish

the purpose of her visit, but ruins her cause by bringing about the direct opposite of what she set out to accomplish:

"Mrs. Tulliver, I think?" said Mr. Wakem.
"Yes, sir; Miss Elizabeth Dodson as was.'
"Pray be seated.

66

You have some business with me?"

'Well, sir, yes," said Mrs. Tulliver, beginning to feel alarmed at her own courage, now she was really in presence of the formidable man, and reflecting that she had not settled with herself how she should begin. Mr. Wakem felt in his waistcoat pockets, and looked at her in silence.

"I hope, sir," she began at last,

"I hope, sir, you're not a-thinking as

I bear you any ill-will because o' my husband's losing his lawsuit, and the bailies being put in, and the linen being sold — oh dear! — for I wasn't brought up in that way. I'm sure you remember my father, sir, for he was close friends with Squire Darleigh, and we allays went to the dances there, the Miss Dodsons, - nobody could be more looked on, and justly, for there was four of us, and you're quite aware as Mrs. Glegg and Mrs. Deane are my sisters. And as for going to law and losing money, and having sales before you're dead, I never saw anything o' that before I was married, nor for a long while after. And I'm not to be answerable for my bad luck i' marrying out o' my own family into one where the goings-on was different. And as for being drawn in t' abuse you as other folks abuse you, sir, that I niver was, and nobody can say it of me."

Mrs. Tulliver shook her head a little, and looked at the hem of her pocket handkerchief.

“I've no doubt of what you say, Mrs. Tulliver," said Mr. Wakem, with cold politeness. 66 But you have some question to ask me ?"

"Well, sir, yes. But that's what I've said to myself, I've said you'd had some nat❜ral feeling; and as for my husband, as hasn't been himself for this two months, I'm not a-defending him, in no way, for being so hot about th' erigation, not but what there's worse men, for he never wronged nobody of a shilling nor a penny, not willingly; and as for his fieriness and lawing, what could I do? And him struck as if it was with death when he got the letter as said you'd the hold upo' the land. But I can't believe but what you'll behave as a gentleman."

"What does all this mean, Mrs. Tulliver?" said Mr. Wakem, rather sharply. "What do you want to ask me?"

“Why, sir, if you'll be so good,” said Mrs. Tulliver, starting a little, and speaking more hurriedly, "if you'll be so good not to buy the mill an'