William Atkinson - The Essential Works of William Walker Atkinson - 50+ Books in One Edition

“‘Why did you not tell me so at first?’ cried Will, ‘I have been waiting for you these many years. Give me your arm, and welcome.’ ‘Lean upon my arm,’ said the stranger, ‘for already your strength abates. Lean on me heavily as you need; for, though I am old, I am very strong. It is but three steps to my carriage, and there all your trouble ends. Why, Will,’ he added, ‘I have been yearning for you as if you were my own son; and of all the men that ever I came for in my long days, I have come to you most gladly. I am caustic, and sometimes offend people at first sight; but I am a good friend at heart to such as you.’ ‘Since Marjory was taken,’ returned Will, ‘I declare before God you were the only friend I had to look for.’ So the pair went arm in arm across the courtyard.

“One of the servants awoke about this time, and heard the noise of horses pawing before he dropped asleep again; all down the valley that night there was a rushing as of a smooth and steady wind descending toward the plain; and when the world rose next morning, sure enough, Will o’ the Mill had gone at last upon his travels.”

Expositive Discourse deals with the statement of a theme in a logical manner, independent of its time or space relations. “Exposition” means: “The act of exposing, laying open or bare, or displaying to public view; an explanation or interpretation; the act of expounding or setting out the meaning.” Hyslop says: “Exposition is a process that deals largely, if not wholly, with abstract and general conceptions, while pure Description and Narration will be occupied with concrete things, and will consider individual objects and their qualities without distinction between the essential and the accidental. But Exposition when dealing with the thought wholes must limit its process to the essential properties or events brought together.”

Hill says: “Exposition may be briefly defined as explanation . It does not address the imagination, the feelings, or the will. It addresses the understanding exclusively, and it may deal with any subject-matter with which the understanding has to do. In the fact that Exposition does not appeal to the emotions lies the essential difference between Exposition and Description or Narration. Theoretically, Exposition treats the matter in hand with absolute impartiality, setting forth the pure truth ,—the truth unalloyed by prejudice, pride of opinion, exaggeration of rhetoric, or glamour of sentiment. Except in works of a technical character, Exposition in this strict sense is comparatively rare.”

While Description and Narrative are concerned with the statement of things or events, Exposition is limited to abstract subjects or general ideas , as for example: Truth; Time; Space; Beauty; Science; Philosophy; Religion; or Man (in the abstract); the Renaissance; the New Thought; Courage, etc. A true Definition is an Exposition. A scientific description is often really an Exposition, as for example Prof. Lodge’s lectures on “The Ether of Space.” A consideration of the abstract qualities of a concrete thing is also an Exposition. The prime requisite of a good Exposition is clearness , and clearness is gained only by logical and orderly arrangement. As an authority has said: “Good arrangement is at least one-half of sound exposition. Order is often equivalent to explanation.” The authorities agree that the best arrangement consists in beginning with the simpler phases of the subject—the features best understood by the hearer—and then gradually proceeding, by logical steps, to the more complex and less understood phases or features.

The following quotation from Clodd’s “Story of Creation” will serve as an example of a short but clear Expositive Discourse:

“MATTER.—Under this term are comprised all substances that occupy space and affect the senses. Matter is manifest in four states—solid, liquid, gaseous, and ultra-gaseous in the form of electrically-charged corpuscles projected into space. It is probably also present throughout the universe in the highly tenuous form called ether. Between the above states there is no absolute break, matter assuming any one of them according to the relative strength of the forces which bind, and of the energies which loosen, the component parts of bodies; in other words, according to the temperature or pressure. E. g ., water becomes solid when its latent heat or contained motion is dissipated, and gaseous to invisibility when its particles are driven asunder by heat. Since the ultimate nature of matter remains unknown and unknowable, we can only infer what it is by learning what it does . The actions of bodies, whatever their states, are explicable only on the assumption that the bodies are made up of infinitely small particles which, in their combined state as mechanical units, are called molecules; and in their free state, as chemical units, are called atoms. The molecule is a combined body reduced to a limit that cannot be passed without altering its nature. The atoms, or so-called elementary substances, number, as far as is known at present, between seventy and eighty, but many of them are extremely rare, and exist in such minute quantities as to be familiar only to the chemist. They were called ‘atoms’ on the assumption of their indivisibility, but this has been recently disproved. The atom is an aggregation of what are called ‘electrons,’ which are in ‘a state of rapid interlocked motion,’ and concerning which, Sir Oliver Lodge says, ‘It is a fascinating guess that they contain the fundamental substratum of which all matter is composed. * * * On this view, the ingredient of which the whole of matter is made up, is nothing more or less than electricity.’ It is estimated that an atom of hydrogen contains 700 electrons; an atom of sodium 16,000, and an atom of radium 160,000. An atom of matter possessing an electron in excess is called an ‘ion,’ and it is the ‘ions’ which act, a negative charge causing the impulse to motions of enormous velocity. Each atom may be compared with the solar or stellar systems as containing a number of bodies moving In rapid orbits. But the comparison falls when the age of the one and that of the other is estimated, since ‘it is probable that the changes in the foundation stones of the universe, the more stable elemental atoms themselves, must require a period to be expressed only by millions of millions of centuries.” Although no known energy that we can apply can separate any one atom into two, so that, as Dalton said, ‘no man can spilt an atom,’ we do not any longer speak of atoms in the words of Clerk Maxwell, as ‘the foundation stones of the material universe, unchanged and unchangeable, not capable of wear, but as true to-day as when they were coined at the mint of the mighty Artificer.’ Nothing escapes the law of change. The shrewd speculations of Heraclitus the Ionian, who lived two thousand five hundred years ago, that everything is in a state of flux, and, therefore, that the universe is always ‘becoming,’ have added confirmation in every discovery of modern physics. An atom, say, of oxygen, entering into myriad combinations, may exhibit the same qualities for millions upon millions of years, but its destiny to ultimately become something other than it is, perchance every atom dissolved, as Sir William Crookes suggests, into ‘the formless mist’ of protyle—assumed the primordial matter—is irrevocable.”

But it must not be supposed that Expositive Discourse is intended only for the purpose of technical or scientific explanation. The lawyer uses it in expounding the principles of the law involved, and the rules of evidence in question; the physician when he is discussing the nature of some particular form of disease; the professor when he is teaching his particular branch; the literary or dramatic critic when he is discussing the merits of a book or play; and the financier when he is setting forth the general features of investment or finance. In Exposition, both Description and Narration are frequently included, in order to illustrate and explain certain points and features of the general subject. And Exposition often invades the province of Argument, when it goes beyond the pure explanation of the general subject, and seeks to urge the merits of some particular theory involved. The various forms of Discoursive Expression are not to be separated from each other, and placed in different mental compartments—on the contrary, they shade and blend into each other, forming many interesting combinations. The classification is adopted principally for convenience in analysis and study of the principles involved.