3.  In many other ways, too, the Norman Conquest affected England.  For example, before long all the best places in the Church were filled with foreigners.  But most of the new bishops and abbots were far superior in morals and education to the Englishmen whom they succeeded.  They were also devoted to the Pope of Rome, and soon made the English National Church a part of the Roman Catholic Church.  But William, while willing to bow to the Pope as his chief in religious matters, refused to give way to him in things which concerned only this world.  No former English king had done that, he knew, and no more would he.  This union with the Roman Catholic Church was of the greatest benefit to England, as it brought her once more into connection with the educated men of Europe.  Indeed, Lanfranc, the Conqueror’s Archbishop of Canterbury, was one of the best and wisest men of his day.

—­Higginson and Channing:  English History for American Readers.

+Theme XXVI.+—­Develop one of the following topic statements into paragraphs by stating causes or effects:—­

1.  A government which had no soldiers to call upon in an emergency would not last long.

2.  One of the first needs of a new country is roads.

3.  The number of people receiving public support is smaller in this country than in Europe.

4.  An efficient postal system is a great aid to civilization.

5.  A straight stream is an impossibility in nature.

6.  Mountain ranges have great influence upon climate.

7.  The United States holds first place as a manufacturing nation.

8.  There are many swift rivers in New England.

9.  Towns or cities are located at the mouths of navigable rivers.

(Which sentences state causes and which state effects?  Would the effects which you have stated really follow the given causes?)

+50.  Development by Repetition.+—­The repetition of a thought in different form will often make plain that which we do not at first understand.  This is especially true if the repetitions are accompanied by new comparisons.  In every school the teacher makes daily use of repetition in her efforts to explain to the pupils that which they do not understand.  In a similar way a writer makes use of this tendency of ours, and develops the idea of the topic sentence by repetition.  Each sentence should, however, do more than merely repeat.  It should add something to the central idea, making this idea clearer, more definite, or more emphatic.  If repetition is excessive and purposeless, it becomes a fault.

Repetition may extend through the whole paragraph, or it may be used to explain any sentence or any part of a sentence.  It may tell what the thing is or what it is not, and in effect becomes a definition setting limits to the original idea.

EXERCISE