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heavy stone work, and a portal with armorial bearings over it, carved in stone. At each corner of the building is an octagon tower, surmounted by a gilt ball and weathercock.

B. In the following, note the words by which we are made aware of the point of view.

The point of view from which I first saw the valley, was not altogether, although it was nearly, the best point from which to survey the house. I will therefore describe it as I afterwards saw it — from a position on the stone wall at the southern extreme of the amphitheatre.

The main building was about twenty-four feet long and sixteen broad certainly not more. Its total height, from the ground to the apex of the roof, could not have exceeded eighteen feet. To the west end of this structure was attached one about a third smaller in all its proportions — the line of its front standing back about two yards from that of the larger house; and the line of its roof, of course, being considerably depressed below that of the roof adjoining. At right angles to these buildings, and from the rear of the main one—not exactly in the middle-extended a third compartment, very small-being, in general, one-third less than the western wing. The roofs of the two larger were very steep-sweeping down from the ridge-beam with a long concave curve, and extending at least four feet beyond the walls in front, so as to form the roofs of two piazzas. These latter roofs, of course, needed no support; but as they had the air of needing it, slight and perfectly plain pillars were inserted at the corners alone. The roof of the northern wing was merely an extension of a portion of the main roof. Between the chief building and western wing arose a very tall and rather slender square chimney of hard Dutch bricks, alternately black and red-a slight cornice of projecting bricks at the top. POE: Landor's Cottage.

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2. Please leave the little chapel for the moment, and walk down the nave, till you come to two sepulchral slabs near the west end, and then look about you and see what sort of a church Santa Croce is. RUSKIN: Modern Painters.

3. By this time they had come to the end of the street. Here they stopped in their walk and looked about them. Far off to the left, etc.

4. The baron gazed with a sad eye into the distance at the vast Norman landscape, undulating and melancholy, like an immense English park, where the farmyards, surrounded by two or four rows of trees and full of dwarfed apple-trees which hid the houses, gave a vista as far as the eye could see of forest trees, copses and shrubbery such as landscape gardeners look for in laying out the boundaries of princely estates. MAUPASSANT: The Farmer's Wife.

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C. By actual observation determine what is the best point from which to view (1) the interior of a certain church, (2) a busy store, (3) an entire village, (4) a winding stream, (5) an old mill, (6) a long avenue, (7) an old orchard, (8) a commencement audience, (9) a railway station on the arrival of a train.

D. Suppose that you wanted to describe a picture gallery, and to include brief descriptions of some of the best pictures in it. What substitute for a fixed point of view would you adopt?

E. Suppose that you wished to make a description of a moving circus procession. What would be your best position?

F. Set down from memory in a list the things that you would mention in a description of the exterior of your own home. From what fixed point of view can they all be seen? Try that point of view yourself. Then revise your list.

G. Suppose that you wished to describe two very unlike people by a running contrast. What device would you employ in order to secure an advantageous point of view of both?

The Order of Observation.

59. There is a story of a German professor who, getting into an omnibus after a hard day's work, and seeing his face reflected in the mirror at the front, but not recognizing it as his own, exclaimed mentally, "There's some worn-out old pedagogue!" He recognized the type before he recognized the individual. His first look reported the class, "worn-out old pedagogue," and only after looking longer, a second or a third time, did he discover the individual traits that enabled him to identify the image as that of a particular "worn-out old pedagogue"-himself. Each of us has had a similar experience when meeting some old friend whom we did not immediately "place" or recognize. or recognize. The first look reported to us only "one of my old friends"; it required further observations to mark the traits which identified the particular friend. Examples might be multiplied. Entering a grove, we come upon several groups of people disposed in various ways and engaged in various employments. The first look reports "a picnic party"; a second, third, or fourth look will be required to enable us to tell what each group is about. On a noisy street we may see a crowd about a man who is mounted on a box and speaking earnestly. look may report nothing more than this. look shows us that he holds a bottle in his we at once register "patent medicine man." second look shows us that he holds a leather-covered book and wears a military cap, we as readily make the mental note, "Salvation Army."

Our first A second

hand, and

Or, if the

The oftener we look, or (what is the same thing) the

longer we look, the more details do we see. If we stand at the gate of a garden in July, our first look will give us nothing more than a vivid impression of bright colors in profusion. As we continue looking, the masses of color begin to arrange themselves in our mental picture, and we notice perhaps the plan and the extent of the garden. Only after repeated observations do we recognize in detail the individual objects and groups that make up the garden. In the presence of a building we are at first aware only of size, color, shape, and height. We must look repeatedly before our mental image will include the numerous lesser details.

In all of these instances we notice that our first observation gives us in more or less imperfect outline an image of the whole object or scene, and that this outline fills up with details as we repeat or continue our observations. It is not true that "First we observe the separate parts, then the unison of these parts, and finally the whole." The truth is that first we observe the whole, gaining from this observation a general impression, accurate in proportion to our familiarity with the thing observed, and then we notice the parts in their relation to the whole.

60. Assignments on the Order of Observation.

A. Look for a moment down a busy street (an unfamiliar street if possible), and then, turning aside, make note of your first impression. Look a second time somewhat longer, and record the details of your second observation. Note especially what elements appear with greater clearness in your picture and what new elements appear.

B. Try the same experiment with a deep well, a tall chimney seen first from a distance and next at close quarters, an approach

ing street car at night, a freight train slowly disappearing around a curve, a boat coming into port.

C. Walk rapidly by a shop-window, and note down the general impression and the things observed. Walk by a second time, and add to your list.

D. Do you think that this description is written in the order of the writer's observations? Give your reasons.

The room in which the House meets is the south wing of the Capitol, the Senate and the Supreme Court being lodged in the north wing. It is more than thrice as large as the English House of Commons, with a floor about equal in area to that of Westminster Hall, 139 feet long by 93 feet wide and 36 feet high. Light is admitted through the ceiling. There are on all sides deep galleries running backwards over the lobbies, and capable of holding two thousand five hundred persons. The proportions are so good that it is not till you observe how small a man looks at the farther end, and how faint ordinary voices sound, that you realize its vast size. The seats are arranged in curved concentric rows looking towards the Speaker, whose handsome marble chair is placed on a raised marble platform projecting slightly forward into the room, the clerks and the mace below in front of him, in front of the clerks the official stenographers, to the right the seat of the sergeant-at-arms. Each member has a revolving arm-chair, with a roomy desk in front of it, where he writes and keeps his papers. Behind these chairs runs a railing, and behind the railing is an open space into which some classes of strangers may be brought, where sofas stand against the wall, and where smoking is practised, even by strangers, though the rules forbid it.

When you enter, your first impression is of noise and tumult, a noise like that of short, sharp waves in a High

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