LXXII.

ON THE TREATMENT OF A SUBJECT.

The first and leading object of attention in every composition is, to determine the precise point of inquiry,- the proposition which is to be laid down and supported, or the subject which is to be explained or described. Unless the writer has steadily before him some fixed purpose which he would obtain, or some point which he would reach, he will be liable to go astray, to lose himself and his readers. It is not until he has determined on the definite object that he proposes to accomplish, that he can know what views to present, and how to dwell on the different topics he may discuss.

Let us suppose, in illustrating the views now to be presented, that the thoughts of the writer have been turned towards the manifestations of wisdom, goodness, and power, in the works of creation around him, and he wishes his readers to be mindful of these things. By asking himself the three following questions with regard to the train of thought in his mind, his ideas will immediately assume some definite form, and he will be enabled to present them in a lucid and systematic manner. 1st. What is the fact?

2d. Why is it so?

3d. What consequences result from it?

And with regard to the first point of inquiry, namely, 'What is the fact?' in reply it may be said,—that, in the material world, there are numerous indications of infinite wisdom and benevolence, and of Almighty power.

2. Why is it so ?' or, How is the existence of these works to be accounted for? What is the cause? To which it may be replied, that God created them.

3. Again; 'What consequences result from it?' To this the answer may be given, that - Men should live mindful of God.

By embodying the results of these inquiries, he will obtain the following conclusion or point at which he aimed, namely, - Men who live in the midst of objects which show forth the perfections of the great Creator, should live mindful of him.

It is not necessary, that the proposition to be supported should always be thus formally stated, though this is usually done in writings of an argumentative nature. Sometimes it is elegantly implied, or left to be in ferred from the introductory remarks.

It is a common impression with young writers, that the wider the field of inquiry on which they enter, the more abundant and obvious will be the thoughts which will offer themselves for their use. Hence, by selecting some general subject, they hope to secure copiousness of matter, and thus to find an easier task. Experience, however, shows that the reverse is true, that, as the field of inquiry is narrowed, questions arise

more exciting to the mind, and thoughts are suggested of greater value and interest to the readers. Suppose, as an illustration, that a writer proposes to himself to write an essay on 'Literature.' Ámidst the nu merous topics which might be treated upon under this term, no unity could be preserved. The thoughts advanced would be common-place and uninteresting. But let some distinct inquiry be proposed, or some assertion be made and supported, and there will be an influx of interesting thoughts presented in a distinct and connected manner.

Instead, therefore, of the general subject 'Literature, let us suppose a particular subject, namely, a 'Defence of literary studies in men of business' is proposed. It will be seen by the following model how spontaneously, as it were, ideas will present themselves, and with what ease they can be arranged with the strictest regard to unity.

Example.

A DEFENCE OF LITERARY STUDIES IN MEN OF BUSINESS.

Among the cautions which prudence and worldly wisdom inculcate on the young, or at least among those sober truths which experience often pre tends to have acquired, is that danger, which is said to result from the pur suit of letters and of science, in men destined for the labors of business, for the active exertions of professional life. The abstraction of learning, the speculations of science, and the visionary excursions of fancy are fatal, it is said, to the steady pursuit of common objects, to the habits of plodding in dustry, which ordinary business demands. The fineness of mind which is created or increased by the study of letters, or the admiration of the arts, is supposed to incapacitate a man for the drudgery by which professional eminence is gained; as a nicely tempered edge, applied to a coarse and rugged material, is unable to perform what a more common instrument would have successfully achieved. A young man, destined for law or com merce, is advised to look only into his folio of precedents, or his method of book-keeping; and dulness is pointed to his homage, as that benevolent goddess, under whose protection the honors of station and the blessings of opulence are to be obtained; while learning and genius are proscribed, as leading their votaries to barren indigence and merited neglect.

In doubting the truth of these assertions, I think I shall not entertain any hurtful degree of skepticism, because the general current of opinion seems, of late years, to have set too strongly in the contrary direction, and one may endeavor to prop the falling cause of literature, without being accused of blameable or dangerous partiality.

In the examples which memory and experience produce of idleness, of dissipation, and of poverty, brought on by indulgence of literary or poetical enthusiasm, the evidence must necessarily be on one side of the question only. Of the few whom learning or genius has led astray, the ill success or the ruin is marked by the celebrity of the sufferer. Of the many who have been as dull as they were profligate, and as ignorant as they were poor, the fate is unknown, from the insignificance of those by whom it was endured. If we may reason a priori on the matter, the chance, I think, should be on the side of literature. In young minds of any vivacity, there is a natural aversion to the drudgery of business, which is seldom overcome, till the effervescence of youth is allayed by the progress of time and habit, or till that very warmth is enlisted on the side of their profession, by the opening prospects of ambition or emolument. From this tyranny, as youth conceives it, of attention and of labor, relief is commonly sought from some favorite avocation or amusement, for which a young man either finds or

steals a portion of his time, either patiently plods through his task, in expec tation of its approach, or anticipates its arrival by deserting his work before the legal period for amusement is arrived. It may fairly be questioned, whether the most innocent of these amusements is either so honorable or so safe as the avocation of learning or of science. Of minds uninformed and gross, whom youthful spirits agitate, but fancy and feeling have no power to impel, the amusement will generally be boisterous or effeminate, will either dissipate their attention, or weaken their force. The employment of a young man's vacant hours is often too little attended to by those rigid mas ters, who exact the most scrupulous observance of the periods destined for business. The waste of time is, undoubtedly, a very calculable loss; but the waste or the depravation of mind is a loss of a much higher denomination. The votary of study, or the enthusiast of fancy, may incur the first, but the latter will be suffered chiefly by him whose ignorance or want of imagination has left him to the grossness of mere sensual enjoyments.

In this, as in other respects, the love of letters is friendly to sober man ners and virtuous conduct, which, in every profession, is the road to success and to respect. Without adopting the common-place reflections against some particular departments, it must be allowed, that, in mere men of busi ness, there is a certain professional rule of right, which is not always honor able, and, though meant to be selfish, very seldom profits. A superior education generally corrects this, by opening the mind to different motives of action, to the feelings of delicacy, the sense of honor, and a contempt of wealth, when earned by a desertion of those principles.

To the improvement of our faculties as well as of our principles, the love of letters appears to be favorable. Letters require a certain sort of application, though of a kind, perhaps, very different from that which business would recommend. Granting that they are unprofitable in themselves, as that word is used in the language of the world, yet, as developing the powers of thought and reflection, they may be an amusement of some use, as those sports of children, in which numbers are used to familiarize them to the elements of arithmetic. They give room for the exercise of that discern ment, that comparison of objects, that distinction of causes, which is to in crease the skill of the physician, to guide the speculations of the merchant, and to prompt the arguments of the lawyer; and, though some professions employ but very few faculties of the mind, yet there is scarcely any branch of business in which a man who can think will not excel him who can only labor. We shall accordingly find, in many departments where learned in formation seemed of all qualities the least necessary, that those who pos sessed it, in a degree above their fellows, have found, from that very circumstance, the road to eminence and wealth.

But I must often repeat, that wealth does not necessarily create happiness, nor confer dignity; a truth which it may be thought declamation to insist on, but which the present time seems particularly to require being

told.

The love of letters is connected with an independence and delicacy of mind, which is a great preservative against that servile homage, which abject men pay to fortune; and there is a certain classical pride, which, from the society of Socrates and Plato, Cicero and Atticus, looks down with an honest disdain on the wealth-blown insects of modern times, neither enlightened by knowledge, nor ennobled by virtue.

In the possession, indeed, of what he has attained, in that rest and retire ment from his labors, with the hopes of which his fatigues were lightened and his cares were smoothed, the mere man of business frequently under goes suffering, instead of finding enjoyment. To be busy as one ought is an easy art; but to know how to be idle is a very superior accomplishment. This difficulty is much increased with persons to whom the habit of em ployment has made some active exertion necessary; who cannot sleep contented in the torpor of indolence, or amuse themselves with those lighter

trifles in which he, who inherited idleness as he did fortune, from his an cestors, has been accustomed to find amusement. The miseries and mis fortunes of the 'retired pleasures' of men of business, have been frequently matter of speculation to the moralist, and of ridicule to the wit. But he who has mixed general knowledge with professional skill, and literary amusements with professional labor, will have some stock wherewith to support him in idleness, some spring for his mind when unbent from busi ness, some employment for those hours, which retirement and solitude has left vacant and unoccupied. Independence in the use of one's time is not the least valuable species of freedom. This liberty the man of letters enjoys, while the ignorant and the illiterate often retire from the thraldom of business, only to become the slaves of languor, intemperance, or vice. But tne situation in which the advantages of that endowment of mind, which letters bestow, are chiefly conspicuous, is old age, when a man's society is necessarily circumscribed, and his powers of active enjoyment are unavoidably diminished. Unfit for the bustle of affairs, and the amusements of his youth, an old man, if he has no source of mental exertion or employment, often settles into the gloom of melancholy and peevishness, or petrifies his feelings by habitual intoxication. From an old man, whose gratifications were solely derived from those sensual appetites which time has blunted, or from those trivial amusements which youth only can share, age has cut off almost every source of enjoyment. But to him who has stored his mind with the information, and can still employ it in the amusement of letters, this blank of life is admirably filled up. He acts, he thinks, and he feels with that literary world, whose society he can at all times enjoy. There is, perhaps, no state more capable of comfort to ourselves, or more attractive of veneration from others, than that which such an old age affords; it is then the twilight of the passions, when they are mitigated, but not extinguished, and spread their gentle influence over the evening of our day, in alliance with reason and in amity with virtue.

REMARKS AND ANALYSIS.

In examining the preceding example of argumentative writing, the principal object of attention will be, the plan or management of the subject. The introduction consists of an indirect statement of the question to be agitated. We are told how those have thought and reasoned, whose opinions are opposed to the opinions of the writer. This statement is distinctly, and fairly, and skilfully made. Our literary taste is gratified by the illustrations and ornaments of language which are found. Our curiosity is roused, and we are ready to enter with interest on the proposed investigation. It should be noticed, that there is no formal statement of the proposition which is to be supported, but that it is clearly and happily implied in the introductory paragraphs.

After the introduction, follows the refutation of an objection. That this is the proper place for considering the objection stated, is evident, since, had it been unnoticed, or its refutation deferred to the close of the essay, the minds of readers might have been prevented by its influence from giving due weight to the arguments adduced. There are two modes of refuting objections; one, by denying the premises from which a conclusion is drawn,-the other, by showing that the conclusion does not truly follow from the premises. The objection here considered is, that facts establish the opposite of the opinion advanced by the writer; of course, the opinion can have no good foundation. To refute the objection, the premise is denied. Facts are otherwise, says the writer, and a satisfactory reason is

assigned why a different impression as to the bearing of facts on the case has prevailed. Having assigned this reason, the writer leaves the point at issue, as to facts in the case, to be determined by the observation and the good sense of his readers. Having thus introduced his subject to our attention, stating by implication the proposition to be examined, and having removed an objection which presented itself at the threshold, the writer now enters on the direct examination of his subject.

The following proposition is supported: Men of business may advan tageously devote a portion of their time to literary pursuits.

1st Argument. Young men of business should engage in literary studies, since in them is found a pleasant relaxation and security against hurtful indulgences.

2d Argument. Young men of business should engage in literary studies, because in this way they acquire a refinement and exaltation of mind, which raises them above grovelling and selfish principles and conduct.

3d Argument. Young men of business should engage in literary studies, because the cultivation of letters is favorable to the improvement of the mind.

4th Argument. A man of business should engage in literary pursuits, because in this way he acquires an independence of feeling, which prepares him to enjoy his wealth. Without cultivation of mind and literary taste, the retirement of the man of wealth is wearisome and disgusting to him. 5th Argument. Men of business should cultivate letters, that they may find in them grateful employment for old age.

This is the plan. Upon examination, we find that it conforms to the general directions given. The several heads are distinct from each other. They have a similar bearing on the leading proposition to be supported, and taken together they give a unity to the subject.

The kind of argument here used, is the argument from cause to effect. Different reasons are stated, which account for and support the assertion that is made, and which forms the leading proposition. Let us now take a nearer view of these different arguments, and see in what way they are supported. Under the first argument, the reasoning is as follows 1. Young men in business will have relaxation and amusement. 2. Unless those of a salutary kind are provided, they will fall into such as are hurtful. Hence the importance of their being directed to literary pursuits, which may interest and benefit them. It may be asked, on what authority do these assertions of the writer rest? How do we know that young men thus will have relaxation and amusement? and that, unless those of a salutary kind are provided, they will fall into such as are hurtful? I answer, that these assertions rest on the common observation and experience of men. Hence the writer takes it for granted, that those whom he addresses will yield their assent to his premises, and, consequently, if his conclusion is correctly drawn, will acknowledge the validity of his argument.

In analyzing the second argument, the inquiry arises, How is it known, that literary studies give refinement and elevation to the mind, raising it above mean and grovelling pursuits? Here the appeal is to consciousness. Men who have thus cultivated their intellectual powers, are conscious, when they look in upon the operations of their own minds, that these salutary influences have been exerted upon them. The third argument, which asserts that the love of letters is favorable to the cultivation of the intellectual powers, rests principally upon experience and observation