ties that make it a good definition, accuracy and brevity, it may
be almost valueless to the ordinary reader. For instance, this
definition, "An acid is a substance, usually sour and sharp to the
taste, that changes vegetable blue colors to red, and, combining with
an earth, an alkali, or a metallic oxide, forms a salt," would not
generally be understood. So it frequently becomes necessary to do more
than give a definition in order to explain the meaning of a term. This
brings us to the study of exposition, as it is generally understood,
in which all the resources of language are called into service to
explain a term or a proposition.

How do Men explain? First, by Repetition.

What, then, are the methods of explaining a proposition? First, _a
proposition may be explained by the repetition of the thought in some
other form._ To be effective, repetition must add something to what
has been said; the words used may be more specific or they may be more
general. For example, "A strong partisan may not be a good citizen.
The stanchest Republican may by reason of a blind adherence to party
be working an injury to the country he loves. Indeed, one can easily
conceive a body of men so devoted to a theory, beautiful though it may
be in many respects, that they stand in the way of the world's
progress." The second sentence repeats the thought of the first in
more specific terms; the third repeats it in more general terms. The
specific may be explained by the general; more often the general is
cleared up by the specific. In either case, the proposition must be
brought one step nearer to the reader by the restatement, or the
repetition is not good.

Speaking of written or printed words, Barrett Wendell writes:--

"In themselves, these black marks are nothing but black
marks more or less regular in appearance. Modern English
type and script are rather simple to the eye. Old English
and German are less so; less so still, Hebrew and Chinese.
But all alphabets present to the eye pretty obvious traces
of regularity; in a written or printed page the same mark
will occur over and over again. This is positively all we
see,--a number of marks grouped together and occasionally
repeated. A glance at a mummy-case, an old-fashioned
tea-chest, a Hebrew Bible, will show us all that any eye can
ever see in a written or printed document. The outward and
visible body of style consists