A Series of Instances or Examples

The following paragraph belongs to the first type and is made up of a series of instances or examples. Many examples of this type may be found in literature. Do you know that in the gradual passage from maturity to helplessness the harshest characters some¬times have a period in which they are gentle and placid as children ? I have heard it said, but I cannot be sponsor for its truth, that the famous chieftain, Lochiel, was rocked in a cradle like a baby, in his old age. An old man, whose studies had been of the severest scho¬lastic kind, used to love to hear little nursery-stories read over and over to him. One who saw the Duke of Wellington in his last years describes him as very gentle in his aspect and demeanor. I remember a per¬son of singularly stern and lofty bearing who became remarkably gracious and easy in all his ways in the later period of life.

- OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table.