Cæsar, do we have in mind the dissolute young patrician, or the great general, or the great legislator, or the unscrupulous political intriguer? 164. The ultimate secret of success in writing-in literary writing as distinguished from strictly scientific-lies in connotation. In strict science the less connotation the better: the business of scientific exposition is to denote objects and phenomena. But in writing that is to secure the personal sympathies of the ordinary reader there can scarcely be too much connotation, provided it be of the right sort. Connotation is a secret. It cannot be taught, as sentence-structure and paragraph-structure are taught; it can be learned only through close and patient observation of the manner of the best writers. Good writing, in this respect, is like good manners: to acquire the art, one must keep good company. Herein lies the fundamental importance of literary models in every course, however brief, of training in composition. Let us consider, e. g., the two adjectives "sovereign" and "kingly." In meaning they do not differ essentially. But their use is quite different. Thus Milton, in the sonnet On His Blindness, says of God: his state Is kingly; thousands at his bidding speed, whereas Shakespeare (see § 113) says of the dawn: Full many a glorious morning have I seen Flatter the mountain-tops with sovereign eye. Apart from metre, to interchange the adjectives in the above passages would spoil the poetry. Another pair of words interesting for their connotation are woman "and the much-abused "lady." The student has only to ask himself whether these terms are not happily discriminated by Hawthorne in § 48 and by De Quin cey in § 31; whether an interchange would not have marred the effect. A recent book upon field-sports is entitled: Ladies in the Field. Here Ladies is necessary; Women in the Field would have suggested hay-raking or hop-picking. In the quotation from De Quincey, § 3, could fire-place or chimney be substituted for "hearth"? In Addison, § 4, would washerwoman be quite as apposite as "laundress"? In Macaulay, § 5 (3), would vivid have been as apposite as "lively"? "Ponderous" and "heavy" ought to be equivalent; yet we could scarcely substitute the second for the first in Hawthorne, § 8. In § 10, could Irving have written “the insufferable din"? Had Lowell, § 11, used some other expression for "smack," would his sarcasm have been as keen? 165. Connotation, taken in a still broader sense, is a property even of sentence-structure and paragraph-structure. This is true of the figures known as Climax and Anti-Climax ($ 95), Irony, Doubt, Interrogation (§ 115), and of the peculiar mode of expression called Hint, or Innuendo. In Climax (and Anti-Climax) the terms denote merely an enumeration; but, as a series, they connote also a rising or falling scale of merit. In Irony, Doubt, Interrogation, the denotation is the direct opposite of the connotation. An amusing story is told of an old-time New Englander, whose obituary notice ran thus:* His English was purified by constant study of the best models: the English Bible, Shakespeare, Addison, and Fisher Ames. The worthy writer of the notice intended merely to denote the favorite reading of the deceased. But, unfortunately, his phraseology connoted something more. In Hint, or Innuendo, the writer stops short of a full * Wendell, p. 113. and explicit statement, but says just enough to arouse the reader's imagination to supply what is suppressed. A good example is in George Eliot's Silas Marner, the chapter entitled Conclusion: Miss Priscilla Lammeter was glad that she and her father had happened to drive up . . . just in time to see the pretty sight. They had come to keep Nancy company to-day, because Mr. Cass had had to go away...for special reasons. That seemed a pity, for otherwise he might to look on at the wedding feast, etc. have gone. ... The special reasons for Mr. Cass's absence, the reasons that made his absence much more of a pity than it seemed to the unsuspecting Miss Priscilla, are not given. But the reader of the story will easily divine them. The following is from Matthew Arnold's translation of Heine: She scolds so sharp, that often her husband snatches his whip, and rushes down here, and gives it to the dogs and to the poor little boys. But his Majesty has expressed his disapproval of such proceedings, and has given orders that for the future his nephews are to be treated differently from the dogs. He has determined no longer to intrust the disciplining of his nephews to a mercenary stranger, but to carry it out with his own hands.-MATTHEW ARNOLD: Heinrich Heine, p. 165. The relation of his Majesty, Pedro the Cruel, to his two nephews being like that of Richard III. to the two little princes in the Tower, we can imagine the change of treatment. The execution of Sydney Carton, in A Tale of Two Cities, is equally noticeable: She [the little seamstress, Sydney's prison companion] goes next before him--is gone; the knitting-women [at the foot of the guillotine] count Twenty-two. "I am the Resurrection and the Life, saith the Lord; he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." The murmuring of many voices, the upturning of many faces, the pressing of many footsteps in the outskirts of the crowd, so that it swells forward in a mass, like one great heave of water, all flashes away. Twenty-three. The student who has learned what connotation is in general will have no difficulty in finding additional examples in his reading. To search for connotation is, in fact, one of the chief duties and pleasures in reading; it brings the reader in touch with the writer. Whether we can use connotation effectively in our own writing will depend mainly upon the degree of our imagination. Only one general rule can be laid down: Make sure that your words and sentences do not suggest a meaning which you do not wish to convey. PART IV. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. THE present work being primarily a manual for training in prose composition, its function is strictly at an end with Part III. But since many schools use only one textbook of instruction in English, Part IV. is added for practical convenience. CHAPTER XVI. POETRY. 166. General Nature of Poetry.-Poetry cannot be defined. All attempts at expressing in set words its distinctive qualities have failed, and will always fail. There is only one characteristic of poetry in general: it is the expression of the ideal in the poet, and it appeals to the ideal in the hearer or reader. It expresses the ideal, in distinction from the actual. But, in its way, it is just as real as the actual is. For instance, Othello never actually existed, he is only an ideal creation by Shakespeare; nevertheless he is a real man, perfectly intelligible to every reader or spectator of the play. In like manner, In Memoriam is not the actual expression of Tennyson's thought and feeling, but the idealized; yet the poem is real to every one who interprets it. Poetry has not only a different logic, i. e., thoughtsequence, from prose; it speaks a different dialect, and |