illumined him. He felt in his heart the cry
of his child, his darling's touch. With shut eyes he saw
them both. They drew him from the depths; they led him a
blind and tottering man. And as they led him he had a sense
of purification so sweet he shuddered again and again."

Unity.

In a sentence, as in a theme or a paragraph, the first question
regarding its structure is what to put into it. The germ of a
paragraph is usually a sentence; of the sentence it is one word or but
very few words. This kernel of a sentence may be developed through the
many modifications of the thought; but always the additions must be
distinctly related to the germ words. If this relation of parts to the
kernel of the sentence be unmistakable, the sentence has unity; if
there are parts whose connection with the germ of the sentence cannot
be easily traced, they should be rejected as belonging to another
sentence. The pith of the whole sentence can be stated in a few words,
if the sentence has unity.

Long sentences should be watched. One thing easily suggests another,
interesting too, it may be; and when an essay is to be written,
anything,--especially if it have so worthy a quality as interest to
recommend it,--anything is allowed to go in. Such a sentence as the
following can be explained on no other principle: "Just then James
came rushing downstairs like mad to find the fellow who had punched a
hole in the tire of his bicycle, which was a Columbia which he got two
years before at a second-hand store, paying for it in work at fifteen
cents an hour." Plainly everything after "bicycle" is nothing to the
present purpose and should be excluded. The following from a
description of Cologne Cathedral is as bad, in some respects, worse;
for there is one point where the break is so abrupt that a child would
detect it. "The superintendence was intrusted to Mr. Ahlert, whose
ideas were not well adapted to inspire him for his grand task, under
his direction much of the former beauty and artistical skill was lost
sight of, but at all events it was a great satisfaction to see the
work go on and to have the expenses defrayed by the State." In this
case the writer, beyond doubt, thinks long sentences the correct
thing. Long sentences are necessary at times; but the desire simply to
write long sentences or to fill up space should never lead one to
forget that a sentence is the expression of one--not more--of one
complete thought.