II. The Golden Thread; and III. The Track of a Storm. I contains six chapters, each a complete stage; II contains twenty-four; and III fifteen. Hardy's Tess of the D'Urbervilles is another case in point. This story the author has divided into seven main stages, which he calls "phases," the episodic character of each appearing from its respective title:— Phase the first. Phase the fourth. Phase the fifth. Phase the sixth.. Phase the seventh... The Maiden. The Consequence. Each of these "phases” is again subdivided into chapters, in this case without titles, but truly episodic, as is clear if one looks into their content. The first five, for example, in Phase the first, might perhaps be represented by some such topics as these: I. Seed by the Wayside. II. The Club Revel. III. The Close of the Day. IV. Rolliver's. V. An Early Morning Tragedy. This principle of episodic division and subdivision characterizes other forms of narrative writing as well as the novel-history, biography, etc., as will be apparent from a glance at the table of contents often prefixed to the various chapters. For mechanical purposes, in analyzing examples of episodic composition into their constituent parts, the student will find it convenient to classify the main groups as "primary," or episodes of the first order; their respective subdivisions as "secondary," or episodes of the second order; and so on, until he reaches the final elements. According to this classification the analysis of the Prodigal Son as arranged on pages 24-26 would show four episodes of the first order (indicated I, II, III, and IV); in II four episodes of the second order (indicated by a, b, c, and d); and in d of these subgroups two ultimate details of the third order. CHAPTER III GENERAL RHETORICAL CHARACTERISTICS A. THE NARRATIVE ITEM THE rhetorical qualities of unity, emphasis, and coherence will vary somewhat in their application to the item ✰✰type and the episodic type of narrative discourse. This difference arises from the fact that, sufficient to itself and not a part of a greater whole, the item does not possess what may be called the "external relations" that characterize the episode. Hence rhetorical principles become simpler in their application, identical with those of what has been called the "isolated paragraph" in distinction from the "related paragraph" of connected discourse, and modified only by such considerations as arise from the very nature of narration as shown by the definition of that form of discourse. (1) Unity The general character of the unity that characterizes the isolated narrative item has already been briefly discussed on pages 4-5. The corporate nature of the event, of the transaction, must be carefully maintained; the contributive bearing of the constituent parts on the entire topic must be made evident. If the reader's mind is allowed to dwell upon the individual character of these constituent details, the impression of one-ness is lost, and either the narrative becomes increasingly episodic, as the details are more and more individualized, or else, through the introduction of irrelevant matter, concentration upon the central theme is weakened with consequent loss of effect. For example, in the following item, by the introduction of a wholly irrelevant detail the sense of concentrated directness is lost. The full effect of the paragraph becomes more apparent if the detail in question be omitted and the narrative be allowed to proceed without interruption. The wretched spy, Veslovsky, received annually 100,000 francs ($20,000) from the Russian Government. He was a short, fat man, with long unkempt hair. He associated with us, and we believed in him. From the first day he came among us this wonderful plotter, this genial schemer, sold his brethren, and betrayed women into the hands of jailers and hangmen. He incited us to acts of violence, in the interest of the Government.1 In President Roosevelt's tribute to Lincoln in the speech delivered at Hodgenville, Ky., on the centenary of Lincoln's birth, the unity of the following paragraph - which may be isolated as if in itself a complete item - is apparent throughout. Every detail contributes to the ultimate conception of Lincoln's career as the painful struggle of an earnest personality toward the goal of supreme attainment. The central idea is not interrupted by the interjection of anything that does not bear on the core idea; the unity of the "transaction" is apparent. This rail-splitter, this boy who passed his ungainly youth in the dire poverty of the poorest of the frontier folk, whose rise was by weary and painful labor, lived to lead his people through the burning flames of a struggle from which the nation 1 Literary Digest: vol. xxxviii, p. 287. emerged, purified as by fire, born anew to a loftier life. After long years of iron effort, and of failure that came more often than victory, he at last rose to the leadership of the Republic, at the moment when that leadership had become the stupendous world-task of the time. He grew to know greatness, but never ease. Success came to him, but never happiness, save that which springs from doing well a painful and a vital task. Power was his, but not pleasure. The furrows deepened on his brow, but his eyes were undimmed by either hate or fear. His gaunt shoulders were bowed, but his steel thews never faltered as he bore for a burden the destinies of his people. His great and tender heart shrank from giving pain; and the task allotted him was to pour out like water the life-blood of the young men, and to feel in his every fibre the sorrow of the women. Disaster saddened but never dismayed him. As the red years of war went by they found him ever doing his duty in the present, ever facing the future with fearless front, high of heart, and dauntless of soul. Unbroken by hatred, unshaken by scorn, he worked and suffered for the people. Triumph was his at the last; and barely had he tasted it before murder found him, and those kindly, patient, fearless eyes were closed forever. (2) Emphasis In the narrative item, as in the ordinary isolated paragraph, emphasis, or effectiveness, is secured by so massing the details as to bring out definitely and vividly the fundamental occurrence. This is often accomplished by the conventional rhetorical device of placing the most significant matter in those parts of the discourse best suited to attract and hold the reader's attention the beginning or the end, preferably the end. A narrative item that closes with unimportant data is weak indeed. In many instances there may be no particular detail of relatively great importance save the climax of |