newspaper, or in the oration of the well-meaning but uncritical admirer. We all know that in such a notice a perfectly commonplace local character is bespattered with such eulogy as rightfully belongs to only two or three persons in a century. Big words are used for small things, and either ignorance or wilful exaggeration confuses moderate ability with genius. Words cease to mean anything when they are tossed about with such carelessness.

Equally objectionable, and probably more harmful, is hostile prejudice. When Macaulay, an ardent Whig, reviews an edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson by John Wilson Croker, a Tory, and finds it "ill-compiled, illarranged, ill-expressed, and ill-printed," he gives the book punishment which it did not deserve, and would not have received if Croker and Macaulay had belonged to the same political party. Prejudices of religion, race, or nation often have the same effect. In undergraduate composition the danger is not so much to the reputation of the person written about as to the temperament of the writer: to lose one's sense of justice, or even to get into the habit of frequently suspending it in order to make a telling hit, is a fault more serious than any merely rhetorical blunder.

Misinterpretation. A subtler danger, perhaps, is that of reading in something which is really not in the text, of criticizing some one for not doing that which he never tried to do and could not be expected to do, of judging him by our time rather than by his own. Suppose, for instance, that I am writing a life of Cotton Mather, a Boston minister almost contemporary with Daniel Defoe. I find that he believed in the guilt of the so-called "Salem witches." Shall I, therefore, pronounce him ignorant and cruel? Before I do so, I ought to ask

whether educated persons of Cotton Mather's time generally believed in witches. Upon looking up the matter, I find that they did. Therefore, my judgment, though it may take other matters into account, must in part be based upon the standard of Cotton Mather's day.

To be reminded that beliefs and customs unlike those of ourselves, our neighborhood, our church, our party, our country, or our century, are not necessarily wicked or even amusing is one of the purposes for which we go to school and college.

EXERCISES

1. A unified sketch of a person in whom one trait is more prominent than any other (such as a bashful person, a superstitious person, an absent-minded person).

2. An incident in the life of an actual person showing character. (But do not rub in the lesson: tuck it away between the lines.)

3. An incident in a person's life told as a short narrative, with emphasis on the uncertainty of the outcome.

4. "Let any one who believes that an ordinary man can write a great biography make the experiment himself. I would have him try to describe the most interesting dinner-party at which he was ever present: let him try to write down from memory a few of the good things which were said, not forgetting to make an incidental allusion to the good things that were eaten; let him aim at what I may call the dramatic effect of the party. And then let him compare the result with Boswell's account of the famous dinner at Mr. Dilly's, the bookseller in the Poultry, where Johnson was first introduced to Wilkes, and he will begin to understand the nature of Boswell's genius." This extract is from Benjamin Jowett's Life and Letters, II, 33. (For Boswell's account, see Copeland and Hersey, Representative Biographies, pages 261-271; or Hill's edition of Boswell's Johnson, Vol. III, pages 64-79.)

5. A paragraph explaining the success or failure of some one by his strongest or weakest trait.

6. A portrait in which description brings out character. (But observe the warning given under Exercise 2.)

7. A report on the best books and best magazine articles about a person whose biography you propose to write. Consider, in making up this list:

(a) the author's relation to his subject,

(b) the extent of his information,

(c) his freedom from prejudice,

(d) the fullness with which he illustrates his work by means of portraits, facsimiles, etc.

8. Read the prefaces to two good biographies and report on (a) the thoroughness with which the subject has been studied, (b) the attitude of the biographer toward other biographers, and (c) his special purpose in writing.

9. Reduce to a single unified paragraph the gist of Bryce's "Goldwin Smith" (College Readings, pages 149 ff.).

SUGGESTIONS FOR WRITING REPORTS AND THESES

47. Qualities of Style. The qualities which the writer of a report or thesis should have especially in mind are clearness, accuracy, brevity, and force. A report should be so clear, both in construction and in expression, that the reader will not be obliged to reread it. Clearness and accuracy are of the first importance, and these should not be sacrificed for the sake of brevity. But brevity is the next important quality, and a writer should devise means of making his ideas clear in the shortest possible space. Furthermore, if he can write forcible sentences which keep the attention and which make points stick in the mind, his writing will be even more efficient.

48. Structure. A report or thesis should be composed according to the regular principles of unity, coherence, and emphasis. Special problems of construction will arise, according to the particular problems of the thesis. Some theses give an historical account of certain facts and would naturally be arranged in a chronological order; others analyze a complicated set of conditions, all existing at the same time; others are argumentative and aim to convince the reader of the writer's interpretation of facts. The student must choose whatever method of arrangement is most natural under the circumstances, and most intelligible to the reader. Whatever the method of structure, the student should keep the reader's attention by the use of brief announcements of method and by summaries.

49. Table of Contents. A report or thesis should be regarded as a book. It should set out to make a distinct point or set of points, concerning which the reader should have no doubt when he has finished reading it. It should also aim to let the reader know as early as possible the purpose, plan, and method of the writer. Accordingly, a table of contents should be prefixed to every report or thesis. This table of contents should be arranged in correlated form; that is, the main divisions and the chief subheadings, and what other important points are necessary, should be arranged in the form of an outline, with numbers and letters, and the page numbers should be given on which these points are discussed. Such a table of contents is very valuable in keeping the writer on the main track, and is most helpful to a reader.

50. Paragraphs. The matter of paragraphing deserves special attention. The length of paragraphs is

dependent on the nature of the thesis. Paragraphs should not be fragmentary groups of a few sentences. A paragraph represents a distinct step onward. The use of topic-sentences at the beginning of paragraphs and of summaries at the end is essential. The relation of each paragraph to what has gone before should be made clear. It is not necessary to employ artificial and mechanical connective phrases for this purpose. The expression of the vital connection of the thought itself is all that is needful. In case a series of paragraphs represents various subheadings of a certain point, it is frequently helpful to number them, so that the reader can see quickly their relation to each other.

51. Sentences. Theses are often unsatisfactory on account of bad sentence structure. Sentences must first of all be grammatical, idiomatic, and correctly punctuated. Great care should be taken that each sentence is a unit in thought and expression. Straggling and incoherent sentences are fatal. Students should aim to form a neat, trim, compact style.

52. Technical Terms. It is to be expected that a man will employ the technical terms and phrases commonly used by writers on his subject. But the privilege of using these shorthand technical expressions carries with it the obligation of using them accurately. If a writer thinks that his reader may have any doubt as to the meaning of technical words, he should carefully explain the sense in which he uses them.

53. Footnotes. A thesis should be equipped with footnotes which give exact references to books from which the student has borrowed ideas or language. These footnotes, which should be placed at the bottom