of Sleepy Hollow, or The House of the Seven Gables, or—on a much smaller scale-the story of Alice Pyncheon, would be without the fulness of descriptive details of all kinds. On the other hand, description has its dangers. If too long or too frequent, it diverts the reader's attention from what is after all the main thing, the action, and begets a feeling of impatience which shows itself in the disposition to "skip." In school-work skipping should be repressed as being unjustified. It may be assumed that any book used in school is chosen for its peculiar merits of style, of which the descriptive passages are an essential feature.

By description thus far has been meant the representation of inanimate objects, such as houses, rooms, fields, rivers, etc. But there is another kind of description indispensable to every narrative-viz. the delineation of the outward appearance and character of the personages. It is upon this delineation that the greatest writers have exerted their best efforts. They have recognized the principle that a story, whether of fact or of fiction, can scarcely be a story without word-portraits of the men and women who figure in it. Some of the methods employed are mentioned in §§ 38, 45, 46. In the present chapter attention is merely called to the value of description as an auxiliary to narration. For instance, in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow our enjoyment of the midnight chase is largely due to our knowing how each rider looks. In The House of the Seven Gables the long description of the house is really an introduction to the story.

33. Mixed Narration and Description. - Not infrequently an event is treated in such a manner that the reader would be puzzled to decide whether the account is a narrative or a description. There may be a thread of action running through the whole, and to that extent the account is a narrative. On the other hand, the thread is proportionally so slight, and the descriptive details are so prominent, that the whole produces the effect of a descrip

tion. An example is the battle of Waterloo, Byron's Childe Harold, iii. 21-28: "There was a sound of revelry by night," etc. Another is Wordsworth's Feast of Brougham Castle, commemorating the exile of Lord Clifford and his return after the War of the Roses. Still another is the death of Judge Pyncheon, The House of the Seven Gables, ch. xviii.; also the drowning of Steerforth and Ham in David Copperfield, ii. ch. xxvi. Numerous examples may also be found in every-day reading, in the accounts of public events, such as the inauguration of a new president, the dedication of a new public building, a boat-race, a ball-game. The fact that something is begun and finished makes the account a narrative. But the wealth of details lavished upon the scene and the spectators produces the effect of a description. And, indeed, such a piece of writing is usually called a description.

34. Generalized Narration.-What is meant by this term may be learned most readily from an example:

What evenings, when the candles came and I was expected to employ myself, but—not daring to read an entertaining book-pored over some hard-headed, harder-hearted treatise on arithmetic; when the tables of weights and measures set themselves to tunes, as Rule Britannia, or Away with Melancholy, and wouldn't stand still to be learnt, but would go threading my grandmother's needle through my unfortunate head, in at one ear and out at the other.

What yawns and dozes I lapsed into, in spite of all my care; what starts I came out of concealed sleeps with; what answers I never got, to little observations that I rarely made; what a blank space I seemed, which everybody overlooked, and yet I was in everybody's way; what a heavy relief it was to hear Miss Murdstone hail the first stroke of nine at night and order me to bed!-DICKENS: David Copperfield, i. ch. viii.

David is narrating how he passed, not one evening in particular, but all his evenings, in the vacation at home. The account would probably not represent exactly any one evening, but it represents them all equally well. It will be observed that the phrases and many of the terms are

general, and the passage as a whole is intended to make upon the reader the impression of a monotonous round.

The reader should be on the watch for similar passages in other books, and should learn to distinguish them from genuine narrative, which always deals with a particular event. See also Generalized Description, § 47.

BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY.

35. History and Biography are usually treated under Narration. This is neither practical nor philosophic. They are not forms of writing, but forms of Literature (see § 1, note). They may comprise, not only narrative and description, but exposition, argument, persuasion, science, philosophy, art, and many other branches of knowledge. Thus, the biography of a great man, e. g., Milton, should present not merely the facts of his life, his outward appearance and acts, but his character, his opinions, his relations to his predecessors and contemporaries, his influence upon his successors, his general position in the world of letters, politics, and religion. The history of a nation should make clear its origin, the sources of its wealth, the habits of the people, its struggles with other nations, its significance in the development of the world. As Carlyle formulates the demand for Scotland:

By whom and by what means, when and how, was this fair broad Scotland, with its arts and manufactures, temples, schools, institutions, poetry, spirit, national character, created and made arable, verdant, peculiar, great, here as I can see some fair section of it lying, kind and strong (like some Bacchus-tamed lion), from the Castle-hill of Edinburgh ?-CARLYLE: Boswell's Johnson.

The task of writing history, then, is exceedingly difficult. Even the reading of history thoroughly is so difficult that the study is excluded from school-work. Although some schools require a small amount of English and American history, this is restricted to an acquaintance with a few of the most important facts. Biography, being less extensive

than history, is less bewildering. Yet it presents difficulties of its own, which are not to be overlooked.

Among the books read in school, the following touch upon history: Scott's poems and romances-e. g. Marmion, Ivanhoe, Quentin Durward, etc.; Longfellow's Evangeline and The Courtship of Miles Standish; Shakespeare's Julius Cæsar. But, to read these books with profit as literature, it is not necessary to treat them as historical writings. Their authors have suppressed, and even altered, many facts; to them the story is the main thing, and the history is only a background. The reader, on his part, may content himself with regarding the story as a mere narrative, partly fact, partly fiction. How much of fact, how much of fiction, is a question into which he need not enter.

With the biography read in school the case is otherwise. Macaulay's essays on Clive, Warren Hastings, the Earl of Chatham, and Addison, Johnson's lives of Swift and Gray, Thackeray's English Humourists, treat of persons not in the least fictitious, and their aim is to instruct in English literature and politics. We are not free, therefore, to read them as we read Rip Van Winkle or Silas Marner.

How to read biography adequately is a problem for college and university training. It is in strictness beyond the school range. Yet even in the school much profit can be had from the study, if it be conducted fairly. Certainly the scholar can get some insight into the biographer's art and acquire a relish for it. The following suggestions are not proffered as a theory of biographical criticism, but merely as a help to the young.

1. Ascertain whether the writer is consistent in his opinions, or whether he advances different opinions in different places.

2. After reading one biography, read another of the same person by a different author, and compare the opinions of the two. If they seem to differ, is the difference real, or is it due merely to their viewing the same object from dif

F

ferent points, as a house varies when viewed from one side or the other?

3. Note carefully every trait of the man's personal appearance, character, habits, and from these traits construct your own portrait of the man.

4. Sum up all that the man endured, suffered, attempted, and accomplished. Put this in your own language.

5. Is the man compared with other men of his time, or with men in the same line of life before or since? Make an abstract of these comparisons, and also make some comparisons of your own between him and other men (of like position) of whom you have read.

6. Make a summary of the information that you have gained (from this biography) upon the country in which the man lived, and its customs.

THE DRAMA AND FICTION.

36. Although the Drama and Fiction are forms of Literature, and can be adequately treated only in a work which professes to deal with literary art, yet, in view of their connection with Narration, a few remarks here will be of service in enabling the reader to perceive more clearly what that connection really is and what misconceptions are to be guarded against.

Drama.-A drama is neither a narrative nor a description. It is a human story acted, or intended to be acted, before our eyes. It is an imitation of life itself. It is not told, but acted. What rules or principles should govern such mimetic representation of life, that is a question which lies outside the province of this book. All that need be said here is briefly this: every drama should bring upon the stage a number of persons in conflict with each other; this conflict should be started, carried to a crisis, and brought to a final solution-the dénouement. What these persons say and do to each other on the stage embodies the action of the drama.