[120] To conclude, exposition embraces definition and explanation. Definition is usually too concise to be clear, and needs an added explanation. In any piece of exposition there must be unity, and this principle will dispense with everything that is not essential to the theme; there must be judicious massing, that those parts of the essay deserving emphasis may receive it; and there must be a coherence between the parts, large and small, so close and intimate that the progress from one topic to another shall be steady and without hindrance. Unity, Mass, and Coherence should be the main considerations in composition the aim of which is to explain a term or a proposition.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS AND EXERCISES.
QUESTIONS.
MACAULAY’S ESSAY ON MILTON.
(Riverside Literature Series, No. 103.)
What makes up the introduction of this essay? Does he use the same method in the Essay on Addison? Take a volume of his essays and see how many begin in similar fashion. At what paragraph of this Essay on Milton does the introduction end? Would it be as well to omit it? Give reasons for your opinion.
Make an analysis of his argument of the proposition, “No poet has ever triumphed over greater difficulties than Milton.”
Does Macaulay give a definition of poetry on page 13, or is it an exposition of the term?
What figure of speech do you find in the last sentence of the paragraph on page 43?
When Macaulay begins to discuss “the public conduct of Milton,” what method of introduction does he adopt? What value is there in it?