Touchstone. "Thank God"; a good answer. Art rich? William. Faith, sir, so so.

Touchstone. "So so" is good, very good,-very excellent good: and yet it is not; it is but so so. -As You Like It, V, i.

she thank'd me,

Othello. . .
And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her,
I should but teach him how to tell my story,
And that would woo her. On this hint I spake:
She loved me for the dangers I had passed,
And I loved her that she did pity them.
This only is the witchcraft I have used.

-Othello, I, iii.

Salisbury. Therefore, to be possess'd with double

pomp,

To guard a title that was rich before,
To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,
To throw a perfume on the violet,
To smooth the ice, or add another hue
Unto the rainbow, or with taper-light

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven to garnish,
Is wasteful and ridiculous excess.

-King John, IV, ii.

Brutus. He hath the falling sickness.

Cassius. No, Caesar hath it not; but you and I, And honest Casca, we have the falling sickness. -Julius Caesar, I, ii.

Cassius. And this man

Is now become a god, and Cassius is

A wretched creature and must bend his body,
If Caesar carelessly but nod on him.

He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him, I did mark

How he did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake:
His coward lips did from their color fly;
And that same eye whose bend doth awe the world
Did lose his lustre.

-Ibid.

Brutus. That you do love me, I am nothing jealous;
What you would work me to, I have some aim;
How I have thought of this and of these times,
I shall recount hereafter; for this present,
I would not, so with love I might entreat you,
Be any further moved. What you have said
I will consider; what you have to say

I will with patience hear, and find a time
Both meet to hear and answer such high things.

-Ibid.

Casca. I can as well be hanged as tell the manner of it: it was mere foolery; I did not mark it. I saw Mark Antony offer him a crown;-yet 'twas not a crown neither, 'twas one of these coronets; and, as I told you, he put it by once; but for all that, to my thinking, he would fain have had it. Then he offered it to him again; then he put it by again; but, to my thinking, he was very loath to lay his fingers off it. And then he offered it a third time; he put it the third time by: and still as he refused it, the rabblement hooted, and clapped their chapped hands, and threw up their sweaty nightcaps, and uttered such a deal of stinking breath because Caesar refused the crown, that it had almost choked Caesar; for he swounded and fell down at it.-Ibid.

Messala. It is but change, Titinius; for Octavius Is overthrown by noble Brutus' power, As Cassius' legions are by Antony.

Titinius. These tidings will well comfort Cassius. Messala. Is not that he that lies upon the ground? Titinius. He lies not like the living. Oh my heart! Messala. Is not that he?

No, this was he, Messala,

Titinius.
But Cassius is no more,- -O setting sun,

As in thy red rays thou dost sink to night,
So in his red blood Cassius' day is set;

The sun of Rome is set! Our day is gone;
Clouds, dews, and dangers come; our deeds are done!
Mistrust of my success hath done this deed.

—Ibid., V, iii.

CHAPTER X

GROUP MOTIVE AND CENTRAL IDEA

The student cannot get too much practice in applying the lessons he has learned in the two preceding chapters. Literature wastes no words; every word, every group, counts, and in no part of reading are attention and constant vigilance so necessary as in the study of Motive and of Central Idea.

The Central Idea may be shifted without changing the Motive; and the Motive may change and leave the Central Idea the same.

For instance: here is a case where the Motive is the same while the Central Idea changes:

Are you going out today?

Are you going out today?

Both ask a question, but the point of view differs. Let us now keep the same point of view while changing the Motive:

Are you going out today? (Won't you please answer?) Are you going out today? (Stop your quibbling about other people: tell me whether you are going out.)

Assert the speaker's Central Idea in the two following

sentences:

I am always right!
I am always right!

The Motive of assertion remains the same but the Central Idea changes in each sentence. Now change the Motive successively on the four words to one of contrast (which is suggested by the parenthetical remark). Keep the contrast in mind while reading aloud.

I (not you) am always right!

I am (in spite of your denying it) always right!
I am always (not occasionally) right!

I am always right (not in doubt)!

You have noticed not merely a shift in the Central Idea, but a peculiar change in the tune in each reading. But (and it is highly important to know this) the student who studies carefully the Motive in each group will not be likely to miss the Central Idea.

As we leave these subjects it should be emphasized that while every group has its Central Idea, all Central Ideas in a given sentence are not necessarily of equal importance. Or, to put it otherwise, there is likely to be in every sentence one dominant idea, and it is to the discovery of that that all your attention should be directed. The student should study carefully all the passages in this chapter, laying great stress on determining the Motive and Central Idea in every

sentence.

The mountain and the squirrel

Had a quarrel;

And the former called the latter "Little Prig."
Bun replied,

"You are doubtless very big;

But all sorts of things and weather

Must be taken in together,