The Parts of a Sentence Should Harmonize.—That the different parts of any writing may be all congruous with one another, and even the boldest ‘figure’ extravagant, the whole must throughout be strictly subservient to the purpose in view, and the energy in any one part be duly correlated with the energy in all other parts. The writing on any one subject should be, in manner as well as in matter, all one creation, each part sustaining and complementing the others, and no part so silent or ‘ornamental’ as to obscure any other or divert to itself any of the attention due to the whole. Or, as the professor advised his students, whenever on reperusal you come on any particularly eloquent passage, out with it. If Memnon and the rising sun figure in the report of modern Egypt under British administration, the rest must be of the same texture. Else all the world that reads the report will point its finger at the patch.

Alteration of Plan.—If in the course of writing the writer’s appreciation of his subject undergo essential alteration, then will the new and the old matter be no longer reconcilable. In such case, if the whole writing is to be coherent, all the old matter must be rewritten in accordance with the new views.

When a literary work is protracted throughout a long period, so that in the latter part thereof the author is a man considerably older than he was at its start, the likelihood is that the change wrought by years in the man will be reflected in his work, and so far mar its unity. An instance of such phenomenon is Goethe’s Faust, which reflects the whole of Goethe’s literary life. The youthful and the aged Goethe there stand side by side in marked contrast—the active, passionate man in the first part; the contemplative, artistic man in the second. Goethe in advanced years contemplated the First Part comparatively aloof, the Second Part with immediate appreciation. The young world, on the other hand, inclines all to the errant Faust of the First Part, and regards the chastened Faust of the Second—at a respectful distance.