The feet are placed at right angles to each other with the toes turned out and the body bent slightly forward. Each foot is then raised alternately and set down slightly on the inside edge. It slides forward of its own accord and this motion is increased by pushing on the other foot, which is at right angles to your forward movement and so does not slide. You should keep your feet perfectly level when raised and set down, turning the forward foot a little on the outer edge as it slides, and keeping the other foot turned to the inside edge. A great help in keeping your balance is to swing your arms across your chest, with each forward slide, to the opposite side from the foot which is advancing. Never look at your feet, as it is almost impossible to keep your balance when doing so. Look straight in front of you at a spot about level with your eyes.
There are various ways of stopping yourself. One is to dig the heel of your skate in the ice and turn the other foot sidewise. Another is to direct your course around a circle and to stop your forward pushing; but perhaps the best way is to turn your toes in, thus putting the line of your skate across the direction of your forward movement.
Try to take as long strokes as possible and not to use the right leg more than the left, keeping your stroke steady and even. Always lean a little forward in ordinary skating and far forward if you wish to go fast.
It is a good thing for beginners to force themselves to turn the advancing foot on the outer edge of the skate. It is a little more difficult to keep your balance in this way, but if once you become fixed in the habit of using the inner edge only, you will never be able to do any fancy or figure skating.
82. Exposition of Abstract Ideas.—All the exercises in explanation you have had thus far have been with regard to simple, material things, that is, things you can touch or see. There are, however, very many subjects which need clear and accurate explanation, but which deal with abstract ideas, with principles, or with emotions. These are much harder to write of than material things, largely because it is harder to think of them quite clearly in your own mind. This is not because you do not have all the information you need, but because you have never tried to think out clearly and analyze the knowledge that you have. For instance, if some one should ask you, What is cheerfulness? although you would feel that you knew perfectly well what that quality is, you might have some difficulty in expressing it.
83. Exposition by Example.—There are many ways to bring out the meaning of an abstract term. One good device is the use of examples. If it is someone in your family who asks you the question, you can give at once a good idea of what cheerfulness is by saying, "Aunt Kate is a cheerful person." But if you are speaking to some one who does not know your Aunt Kate, you must then proceed to describe the quality in her which you call cheerfulness. You will find this use of example a very convenient method of exposition.
Another device is comparison with something that is similar but not quite the same. In explaining the exact difference between the two you define the subject of your exposition. For instance, suppose you are asked by a child to explain the meaning of parsimony. You can take a word which he knows, like saving or economy, and by showing the difference between the two, you can give him a clear notion of the meaning, explaining that economy is wise and reasonable saving of expense, and parsimony is foolish and exaggerated saving. The following paragraph shows the use of this method, the author comparing cheerfulness to mirth.
I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Those are often raised into the greatest transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depressions of melancholy. On the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness, prevents us from falling into any depths of sorrow. Mirth is like a flash of lightning that breaks through a gloom of clouds and glitters for a moment. Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.—Joseph Addison: The Spectator.
Exercise 132.—Using this device of comparison, and adding to it examples, try to explain the following subjects:—
1. Courage. Compare with rashness or foolhardiness, using as example the character of Hobson as compared with that of a man who goes over the Niagara Falls in a barrel.
2. Joy. Compare with contentment, using as example a mother perfectly contented with her home and children, who is suddenly overjoyed by a heroic deed of a son.
3. Perseverance. Compare with obstinacy, using as examples a hen sitting patiently till her chicks are hatched out; and another sitting week after week on china eggs.
4. Extravagance. Compare with liberality, using as example a man who gives away so much to strangers that he has not enough left to care for his family.
5. Industry. Compare with drudgery, using as examples a man who carries stone for road-mending, and the military punishment of making an offender carry stones from one side of the road to another.
84. Exposition by Repetition.—Another good method of explaining an abstract idea is to repeat in several different ways your first statement or definition. First, you define your subject as accurately as possible, by telling to what kind or order of thing it belongs, and then by pointing out differences between this individual example and others of the same kind. For instance, you are asked by a child to define a snob. First, you give some general idea of the meaning of the term by saying, "A snob is a vulgar person with bad manners." But there are vulgar persons with bad manners who who are not in the least snobs, so that after stating the general order of the persons to which a snob belongs, you must separate him from all other varieties of that class. You go on, therefore, "He pays a foolish and exaggerated respect to social position and money, and cannot understand that a noble character has any value in a poor or uncultivated person."