9. Arrangement of Material.-Let us understand the term organization. An organism is made up of parts, but it is something more than a mere aggregation of parts. The parts have a vital relation to one another beyond the accidental relation of nearness. They are mutually dependent, so that one has no meaning apart from the others, or perhaps cannot even exist in the same form apart from the others. From this vital and necessary relation between the parts it comes that the organism has a unity of its own. We speak of it as one thing. A mere conglomeration remains always many things. The human body is an organism. It is a perfect unit only when every part is present and performing its function. And the parts have no meaning when severed from the whole. Cut off the hand and it is no longer a hand. Its functions and attributes, even to its external appearance, perish. A machine may be called an organism. A piece of machinery picked up by the roadside is only a cause of perplexity to the mind that is ignorant of its place and purpose. As it is, it is useless. And the machine to which it belongs may be useless until it is restored. A state is an organism, political and social. A poem is an organism. Every word, every rime, that is essential to the meaning and effect of the whole is organic. Every part that could be lopped off, that does not play into the other parts, that is no true organ, is inorganic. A composition should be an organism. Its parts should be adapted to one another, should grow into or out of one another, and should severally and collectively serve the whole. The ordering and adaptation of these parts so as to constitute this composite unity is the process of organization. 1. The prime governing principle in putting together a composition is no doubt unity. Much will have been. already done toward securing this by following the counsel given in the sections on Limitation of the Subject, The Title, and Use of Material. The term unity, however, must not be construed too narrowly. As pointed out in the last paragraph, this unity has parts, whole systems and sub-systems of parts, just as the body has its nervous and respiratory systems, its blood and tissue, and in the last analysis its cells. It is a unity that comes as a result of unification. The theme may be treated in its various aspects and divisions. It will often fall naturally into two opposing parts: a coin has two faces. And the parts, whether two or more, may divide and subdivide almost without limit. The restraint is found in the necessity of preserving a relation that will be always felt. The whole matter may be easily illustrated. Let us assume the subject "Cost of an Electrical Plant." It is naturally divided thus: Cost of an electrical plant Cost of producing energy. and Cost of transmitting energy. The second division may be subdivided thus: Cost of transmitting energy Cost of installation. Now under the first of these subdivisions come two considerations: First cost of conductor Increase of size means increase of first cost, but Increase of size means decrease in amount of energy wasted. Whether the divisions be in the nature of simple partitions or of contrasted aspects, the essential unity of an essay built up after such a plan is at once evident. 2. Logical sequence is the second requisite. A natural order in the arrangement of parts can nearly always be found that is to say, an order that is in the nature of things. The choice of order is virtually reduced to a choice between two: the order of time, and the order of cause and effect. The first prevails in narrative writing, the second in argumentative. Exposition employs both. In description the process may seem to be different we describe together the elements that are found together in the object described, we begin with the general view and proceed to details, or we begin with the most salient features and continue with those that demand closer scrutiny. But this, it is evident, is following for the most part the order in which things are seen by the eye, and that is after all a temporal order. A geologist who should describe Yellowstone Park would begin by going back 150,000 years. His object, however, would be to show the conditions that existed then in order to account for the conditions found now. His order would be more strictly logical than chronological. A tourist would describe the same thing by taking us in imagination. over the ordinary route of travel. His order would really be a chronological one; or it would be a logical order only in the sense in which that word was used at the beginning of this paragraph-that is, it would be a natural order. Again, if one were writing about marketing prunes, one would not speak of commissions first, and the cost of picking second, and freight rates third, and the cost of boxes and packing fourth. One would find a more natural order. In an outline of a theme entitled "Coöperative Housekeeping" is found this inexplicable arrangement : Reasons for the growth of the system (Diminution of labor, Spread of communistic ideas, Reduction of ex pense. Why is the visionary consideration thrust between the two practical ones? One can see how the first point may lead to the second, but what will bridge over the gap to the third? If we put the third first, the difficulty will be obviated. The "saving" idea will then connect the first and the second, while the "labor" idea in the second may be employed, albeit somewhat arbitrarily, to suggest the third. Always let an essay follow some line of natural development, let it grow. In the whole 3. The third consideration is relative emphasis. How to secure the desired emphasis for important parts is much a matter of proportion, and that must be dealt with in the actual writing of the composition. But one point is to be observed in the arrangement of material. The emphatic positions are the beginning and the end. composition one would say that by all means the most emphatic position is the end. It is possible that this law is reversed in description, but exposition and argument should attend to climax no less surely than a story should. In general the climax, the rising to important matters, should become apparent toward the end--it need not be sought for throughout. Minor matters may be placed at the beginning, particularly if such a procedure constitutes a sort of preliminary clearing of the ground, or they may be sunk in the middle of the composition where they will be touched hurriedly and lightly. 10. The Outline.—A preliminary draft or sketch is not indispensable for the writing of a composition. Whole books get themselves written when the writer does not know from one page to another what is to follow. But these are the exceptions. The chances of securing unity and symmetry by this method are slight. The penny-aliner, whose sole care is to keep things moving, may adopt it; but the writer with a serious purpose will not. position and argument in particular demand forethought and planning. An outline is not always written, not usually, perhaps, except in the form of rude jottings and Ex memoranda, for most writers find it necessary to modify their preconceptions as their work develops. But the result is the same. The work is built up more or less in accordance with a first plan. It is the making of this first plan that we desire to consider. The process consists simply in jotting down all the ideas that are suggested by the selected theme, and then arranging these ideas in accordance with the principles of sequence, etc., stated above. The relation between some of the ideas will be close, between others more remote. This will lead to grouping. Some one principle, then, which shall govern this grouping should be sought early; otherwise the groups will overlap and there will be confusion. The principle being established and the groups defined and arranged, the designation of each group can be treated as a new theme and the process repeated. Thus the subject can be pursued to its farthest ramifications, or as far as desirable. Let us take the subject of "Longfellow's Poems." The Wreck of the Hesperus and The Village Blacksmith were published together with a few other poems in 1841, and so suggest a grouping of early poems. Footsteps of Angels and My Lost Youth will go into a group of autobiographical poems. Paul Revere's Ride and The Courtship of Miles Standish may be considered together as poems of New England life. The Cumberland and The Luck of Edenhall are ballads. The Divina Commedia and The Song of the Silent Land are translations. Suppose now we attempt to construct an outline on the basis of these groups: LONGFELLOW'S POEMS. A. Early poems. 1. The Wreck of the Hesperus. B. Autobiographical poems. 1. Footsteps of Angels. But here we discover that the last-named poem was written in the same year as the first-named, and might therefore have been |