of speech before they are ready to enter upon their high-school work. Special exercises might be given from time to time on figures of speech in connection with their reading or literature lessons, which will, in due time, serve as material for composition writing. For this purpose such selections should be culled from literature as will appeal to the personal experiences of the pupils. Many a boy will be delighted to find himself portrayed in the figures of speech used by Whittier in his In School Days or The Barefoot Boy, or in many of Longfellow's, Field's or Riley's poems; and some country boy will be still more delighted to find in Tennyson's The Brook the following stanza,— a personification which recalls the boy's own childhood days when he spent so many happy hours wading barefoot over pebbles in some brook near his country home. Come back now to our topic, MY MORNING WALK. While one of the pupils is reading his composition, other pupils may call attention to the fact that sound is referred to a number of times. This element, in its turn, will become an interesting topic for conversation and friendly criticism. Many questions might arise with regard to the nature of the sounds referred to in the composition; for example, were they harsh sounds? or were they soft sounds? or melodious sounds? Many of the girls who have had practice in music will have answers ready. Questions then might arise with regard to the sources of the sounds referred to: were they artificial or natural sounds? Were they caused through the agency of man, or did they arise direct from nature? In connection with this feature of the work literature might again be drawn upon. The passages in literature in which onomatopoetic effect is clearly marked will be especially interesting and useful. Bryant's poetry affords an abundance of material of this character. His "Robert of Lincoln," with his spink, spank, spink" and "chee, chee, chee," is a picture presented by means of words that represent sound. Poe's The Bells is another good example; here the silver, the golden, the brazen, the iron bells, in their tinkling, chiming, clanging and tolling, present a series of pictures.* While frequent references to motion, sound, form and odor may be found in elementary descriptive compositions, there will generally be more references to color. Let the pupils point out the passages in which this element is referred to and decide. which are the most appropriate. There will be no need of telling them that the passages which contain references to delicate tints of colors are the best. They will find it out themselves. Many of them, in fact, already know it; they have known it, or rather have felt it, ever since they were little children. This may, however, be their first conscious realization of their possession of this knowledge. They begin to see themselves in their own writings. What a delight to them this realization must be! An opportunity is now open for giving the pupils a few glimpses of the world of beauty that lies beyond—that is still ahead of them in their composition work in higher schools and in the active duties of life. They should be told that our best word-painters, the great novelists and poets-in making use of the element, color, as a means by which they express their thoughts and feelings, often use words and phrases that simply suggest colors. Keats's poetry will furnish appropriate illustrations; for this great poet in presenting some of his best pictures by means of words and phrases that represent colors does not, in every instance, mention red, orange, yellow, or any of the so-called prismatic colors. Tell them that not only Keats, but many other great writers, when portraying the green beauty of the primeval forests, the beautiful blue of the sky and the sea, and the cloud-reflecting lakes, oftentimes use only hints of colors. Read them passages from Shelley and Bryant to show how they, by means of this indirect process, present the many-colored beauty of their sunset skies; or passages from Tennyson that contain word-pictures of the early morning sky; as, "Morn in the white wake of the morning-star * Read A. H. Tolman's article, The Expressive Power of English Sounds, Atlantic Monthly, April, 1895. Browning also has many beautiful passages that depict sunrise; but in this respect Lanier surpassed them all. This suggestive or indirect process of portraying pictures by means of words may appropriately be called the kindling hint process. In portraying such pictures the writer does not really describe; he simply gives a hint-some type or characteristic by means of which we are enabled to see the complete picture. He appeals to our imaginations; his picture kindles-grows upon us. This is art. But when a writer describes by giving all the details, he does not write the best literature; he simply gives information. In order to illustrate this to young pupils read to them a newspaper description of a thief or criminal who has made his escape, and contrast it with some familiar piece of literature; for example, Longfellow's picture of the scenery surrounding the little village in Acadia, where the distances are not given in miles, or the size of the fields in acres; we are simply told that there were "vast meadows," and "flocks without number." So Wordsworth, in presenting his picture of the "host of golden daffodils" which he saw "Beside the lake, beneath the trees, Fluttering and dancing in the breeze," does not attempt to give an exact description of the flower,— its form, its size, the number of its petals and stamens-or any other of its special characteristics, but by means of such general words as "golden," referring to color, and "fluttering" and dancing," referring to motion, he makes us feel its beauty. 66 Now, some may say that young pupils in the grades are not sufficiently advanced in æsthetic culture to be able to appreciate the poetical meanings that are implied in the kindling hint process, or even those that are expressed by means of figures of speech, or by means of the five elements of nature found in descriptive writings. But a casual glance through a set of compositions written by any average class in the higher grades of the elementary schools will reveal the fact that these young people not only appreciate and enjoy reading such passages in literature, but in their attempts at descriptive writing actually use all these devices; then, too, they oftentimes do more-they present the subjective as well as the objective side of the pictures that they portray. Here are two extracts taken from compositions written by seventh-grade pupils. Note the natural way in which a figure of speech is used, and the appropriate references to three of the elements of nature: "I always feel sad when I walk over the crisp, dead leaves and listen to their rustling." "Our prairies, with their long grass turned all to somber brown, look desolate until the snow comes and lays a white mantle over everything." set of Here are examples of personification taken from a compositions written by pupils who have had a little more practice : "The willows growing in bunches near the water looked as if they were standing guard over their more delicate friends, the flowers." ". . . In whose crystal waters the lilies bathed their slender fingers, and timid crocuses peeped up from the grasses that grew beside it." But here is a passage taken from the same set of compositions in which a kindling hint picture is presented : "Wild flowers and grass grew on the roof and wall.” The picture here presented is more than an external view of the flowers, the grass, the roof and the walls; these are only hints the mere outline of the complete picture that grows on our imaginations. The time element comes into our minds as we read, and with it associations that cause us to see the subjective as well as the objective side of the picture. These are only a few of the means by which work in descriptive writing can be made interesting to young people. Indeed, there seems to be about as great a variety of interest in description as in narration. How much better, then, it would be if the teachers in the elementary schools, instead of having the pupils waste time in memorizing the senseless rules and endless details of the so-called English grammars, would give them an opportunity to learn to write by writing,-in other words, to learn English by using English. THE LIFE AND WORK OF BROWN-SÉQUARD. (From an article in the Revue Scientifique [Revue Rose].) MRS. WM. D. CABELL, NORWOOD, VA. HARLES EDOUARD BROWN-SÉQUARD was born April 8, 1817, at Port-Louis, Mauritius, of an American father, Brown, of Philadelphia, and a French mother, Mlle. Séquard. The father, a captain in the merchant marine, was lost with his ship some months before the birth of the son who was to inherit from him the boldness distinguishing his future experiments and the readiness to change his abiding place. From his mother he drew the Southern vivacity of mind and the affectionate disposition which attracted to him such varied and genuine sympathy. The tropical region where he was born gave him the physical type of the Indian Creole. When Brown-Séquard was born Mauritius had ceased to be a French colony, and he was obliged to become naturalized when he finally settled in France. French was his native language, however, and he learned English in the course of his first voyage to the United States. privations and poverty, but She maintained herself and His mother brought him up amid with a tenderness he never forgot. him by the sale of her needlework. At fifteen years of age he became clerk in a colonial bazaar, a place of sale for all sorts of commodities, and also a rendezvous where the lad met not only the tradespeople, but the wits of the community. He began to write poetry, plays, etc. At twenty Brown went with his mother to France, the center of attraction to all Mauritians. On his arrival the young fellow fearlessly offered his literary work to Ch. Nodier, whose comment was brief, "My young friend, you must take a trade to live." The lad followed the brusque advice so far as to take up the study of medicine with great zeal, supporting himself by teaching comrades less apt than himself. As a student in the laboratory of Martin Magron he was beginning to make original researches, when an injury received at his work prostrated him for months, and the death of his mother temporarily robbed him of all hope. At last, by the aid of a friend, he returned to |