or as a training for after life; whether at a special institution
or as the result of any college. If he limits himself to one phase
of influence, he must in the same way decide fully in what sense
he intends to treat that phase. If he is to consider the social
effect of college life, for instance, he has to define for himself
the sense in which he will use the word "social." Is it to mean
simply formal society, adaptation to the more conventional and
exclusive forms of human intercourse, or to imply all that renders
a man more self-poised, more flexible, and more adaptable in any
relations with his fellows? If, on the other hand, it is the
intellectual influence of college life which is to be studied, the
first step is to decide what is to be considered for this purpose
the range of the term "intellectual"; whether it is to be taken to
mean the mere acquirement of information; whether it has relation
to acquirement or to modification of mental conditions; whether it
means change in the mind in the way of development or of
modification; whether it shall be applied to an alteration in the
student's attitude toward knowledge or toward life in general. All
this is in the line of definition, and it is naturally connected
with the statement of whatever facts bear upon the topic under
discussion.

Statement has largely to do with fact. Theory belongs rather to
whatever inference is part of an exposition. In the statement will
come the observations of the writer; whatever he knows of general
conditions at college, or such individual examples as bear upon the
question in hand. From these he will inevitably draw some
conclusions, and the value of the exposition will depend upon the
reasonableness and convincingness of these inferences, as these
will, in turn, depend upon the clearness of the writer's original
knowledge in regard to his intentions and the logic of his
statements.

Composition, it should be remembered, is the art of communicating
to others what is in the mind of the writer. To write without
having the subject abundantly in mind is to invite the reader to a
Barmecide feast of empty dishes. The necessity of insisting upon
such particulars as those just given of the process of making an
exposition arises from the stubborn idea of the u