roportion.

The body of a paragraph should have the matter so proportioned that
the more important points shall receive the longer treatment. In a
paragraph of proof, details, or comparison, that point in the proof,
that particular, that part of the comparison, which for the specific
purpose has most significance, should have proportionately fuller
treatment. It is the same principle already noticed in exposition.
Indicate the relative importance of topics in a paragraph by the
relative number of words used in their treatment.

For mass in a paragraph, then, keep in mind that the last sentence
should contain matter and form worthy of the position it occupies;
that the position of next importance is at the beginning; and that the
relative importance of the matters in the body of a paragraph is
pretty correctly indicated by the relative length of treatment.

Coherence and Clearness.

Coherence, the third principle of structure, is the most important;
and it is the most difficult to apply. For one can make a beginning
and an end, he can select his materials so that there is unity, but to
make all the parts stick together, to arrange the sentences so that
one grows naturally from the preceding and leads into the next,
requires nice adjustment of parts, and rewriting many times. How
essential coherence in a paragraph is, simply to make the thought easy
to grasp, may be seen by taking a paragraph to pieces and mixing up
its sentences, and at the same time removing all words that bind its
parts together. The following can hardly be understood at all, but in
its original condition it is so clear that it cannot be misunderstood.
If the sentences be arranged in the following order, the original
paragraph will appear: 1, 5, 3, 9, 8, 6, 2, 4, 7, 10.

1. "The first question which obviously suggests itself is
how these wonderful moral effects are to be wrought under
the instrumentality of the physical sciences. 2. To know is
one thing, to do is another; the two things are altogether
distinct. 3. Does Sir Robert Peel mean to say, that whatever
be the occult reasons for the result, so it is; you have but
to drench the popular mind with physics, and moral and
religious advancement follows on the whole, in spite of
individual failures? 4. A man knows he should get up in the
morning,--he lies abed; he knows he should not lose his
temper, yet he cannot keep it. 5. Can the proce