toward
        the world.
  (d) Religion—­the sense of dependence upon and responsibility to the
        Higher Power; the profound American belief that our destiny is in
        His hands.
  (e) The minor elements of American character—­such as the tendency to
        organize, the element of humor, impatience with frauds, and the
        movement in American life toward the simple and sincere.

—­Beveridge:  Americans of To-day and To-morrow.

C. Consult the table of contents or opening chapters of any text-book and notice the main divisions.

 D. Find in text-books five examples of classification or division.

 E. Make one or more divisions of each of the following:—­

1.  The pupils in your school. 2.  Your neighbors. 3.  The books in the school library. 4.  The buildings you see on the way to school. 5.  The games you know how to play. 6.  Dogs. 7.  Results of competition.

+Theme LXXXIX.+—­Write an introductory paragraph showing what divisions you, would make if called upon, to write about one of the following topics:—­

1.  Mathematics.

2.  The school system of our city.

3.  The churches of our town.

4.  Methods of transportation.

5.  Our manufacturing interests.

6.  Games that girls like.

7.  The inhabitants of the United States.

(Have you mentioned all important divisions of your subject?  Have you included any minor and unimportant divisions?  Consider other possible principles of division of your subject.  Have you chosen the one best suited to your purpose?)

+163.  Exposition of a Proposition.+—­Two terms united into a sentence so that one is affirmed of the other become a proposition.  Propositions, like terms, may be either specific or general.  “Napoleon was ambitious” is a specific proposition; “Politicians are ambitious” is a general one.

When a proposition is presented to the mind, its meaning may not at once be clear.  The obscurity may arise from the fact that some of the terms in the proposition are unfamiliar, or are obscure, or misleading.  In this case the first step, and often the only step necessary, is the explanation of the terms in the proposition.  The following selection taken from Dewey’s Psychology illustrates the exposition of a proposition by explaining its terms:—­

The habitual act thus occurs automatically and mechanically.  When we say that it occurs automatically, we mean that it takes place, as it were, of itself, spontaneously, without the intervention of the will.  By saying that it is mechanical, we mean that there exists no consciousness of the process involved, nor of the relation of the means, the various muscular adjustments, to the end, locomotion.

It is possible for our listeners or readers to understand each term in a proposition and yet not be able to understand the meaning of the proposition as a whole.  When this is the case, we shall find it necessary to make use of methods of exposition discussed later.