CHAPTER II GROUP SEQUENCE Read aloud the following sentences: 1. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills. 2. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some romantic plan for the recapture of their horses. 3. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some romantic plan for the recapture of their horses from the enemy. 4. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some romantic plan for the recapture of their horses from the enemy, when they came out of the path into a road. 5. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some romantic plan for the recapture of their horses from the enemy, when they came out of the path into a road, and found themselves within twenty yards of a group of Federal soldiers. 6. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some romantic plan for the recapture of their horses from the enemy, when they came out of the path into a road, and found themselves within twenty yards of a group of Federal soldiers, quietly sitting on their horses. 7. They were talking very merrily about the General and Hugh and their friend Mills, and were discussing some romantic plan for the recapture of their horses from the enemy, when they came out of the path into a road, and found themselves within twenty yards of a group of Federal soldiers, quietly sitting on their horses, evidently guarding the road. You observe, sentence 1 presents a complete idea, but in every succeeding sentence something is added, something of great importance, without which we should not get the full meaning. Each sentence standing alone makes complete sense, and yet sentence 1 when repeated in 2 is not complete without the added idea of 2. The same principle applies in 3, where two ideas are added to the first sentence, and one to the second; and so on to the end. Hence, in reading the last sentence the mind keeps looking on from group to group, until the entire story is finished. In other words, our minds continually reach forward for the complete thought—for what the author wanted us to see. Briefly, he saw some people who, while talking and discussing a plan, came to a road and found themselves near soldiers, sitting on their horses, guarding the road. You have not found this illustration difficult to understand; but you have learned from it an important principle: Group Sequence. Long years of careless reading have resulted in what we may call mental laziness. We read along (we are speaking now of silent reading), getting an idea here and an idea there, but making no conscious effort And this explains why in to get the complete idea. reading aloud we so frequently chop up our sentences regardless of sense, just as the young child learning to read reads every group as if it were his last. He but when he gets the whole thought he reads: g. h t n g; f i g h t i n g. and a Now with this principle in mind, read aloud sentence 7 in such a way that the listener will be virtually compelled to keep looking forward to the end. Again we have used a very simple example to illustrate an important principle; now we will study a more difficult selection: The mother hen's cluck, when the chicken happened to be hidden in the long grass or under the squashleaves; her gentle croak of satisfaction, while sure of it beneath her wing; her note of ill-concealed fear and obstreperous defiance, when she saw her arch-enemy, a neighbor's cat, on top of the high fence;-one or other of these sounds was to be heard at almost every moment of the day.-HAWTHORNE: The House of the Seven Gables. As you read this silently you find yourself constantly looking forward for the assertion-for the word that describes the action-for the verb. When you read aloud carefully you will keep the listener looking forward, waiting for the complete assertion or picture, just as you did when reading to yourself; so that his mind, following you closely, sums it up about like this: The mother hen's cluck, etc.; her gentle croak, etc.; her note of fear, etc., was to be heard every moment of the day. In poetry Group Sequence is even more interesting than in prose. For instance, in the opening lines of Longfellow's Paul Revere's Ride we have: Listen, my children, and you shall hear Here is a temptation to close the thought after "Revere" because the lines make a complete statement; but on reading the next line you find that it expresses an idea which must be included with the statement in the first two, so it is positively wrong to close the sense at "Revere." Test it for yourself by reading it both ways: Listen, my children, and you shall hear Apply this principle in the next stanza from the sanie poem: He said to his friend, "If the British march Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch Of the North Church tower as a signal light,— Read aloud the passages, closing the sense whenever there is a temptation to do so; and then read them correctly, noting the difference in the two readings. There are many catches in this excerpt. The careless reader, ignoring the fact that there is no punctuation after "arch," closes his statement at that point; but as he reads on he discovers that he needs the entire following line for its completion. Then he continues at the sixth line and closes the statement at "be," until, on reading the next line, he finds that it is closely connected with the preceding; and if he is not very careful he will find himself slipping in a similar way at "alarm," and "farm." We have a very instructive example in these lines from Tennyson's Lancelot and Elaine. The fair Elaine is dead, and is being borne on her bier by two brothers to the barge that is to carry her body to Camelot. How beautiful is the effect of the suspended sense! Even in "Sister, farewell for ever" and "Farewell, sweet sister" (where there is great |