and contrast. Burke's _Conciliation with America_ has
several passages of each.

Cause to Effect. Explanations based on progressions from cause to
effect and the reverse are admirably suited to operations, movements,
changes, conditions, elections. An exposition of a manufacturing
process might move from cause to effect. A legislator trying to secure
the passage of a measure might explain its operation by beginning with
the law (the cause) and tracing its results (the effect). So, too, a
reformer might plead for a changed condition by following the same
method. A speaker dealing with history or biography might use this
same plan.

Effect to Cause. In actual events, the cause always precedes the
effect, but in discussion it is sometimes better not to follow natural
or usual orders. Many explanations gain in clearness and effect by
working backwards. A voter might begin by showing the condition of a
set of workmen (an effect), then trace conditions backward until he
would end with a plea for the repeal of a law (the cause). A student
might explain a low mark on his report by starting with the grading
(the effect) and tracing backwards all his struggles to an early
absence by which he missed a necessary explanation by the teacher. A
doctor might begin a report by stating the illness of several persons
with typhus; then trace preceding conditions step by step until he
reached the cause--oysters eaten by them in a hotel were kept cool by
a dealer's letting water run over them. This water in its course had
picked up the disease germs--the cause. Many crimes are solved by
moving from effect to cause. A lawyer in his speeches, therefore,
frequently follows this method.

Both these methods are so commonly employed that the student can cite
instances from many speeches he has heard or books he has read.

Time Order. Somewhat similar to the two preceding arrangements of
exposition are the next two based on time. The first of these is the
natural time order, or chronological order. In this the details follow
one another as events happened. It is to be noted, however, that not
any group of succeeding details will make a good exposition of this
sort. The parts must be closely related. They must be not merely
_sequential_ but _consequential_. Dictionary definitions will explain
the difference in meaning of those two words. This method is somewhat
like the order from cause to effect, but it is adapted to other kinds
of topics and