determine which of the two predominates. Nor perhaps would there be any practical good in attempting a distinction; though in general it may be said that where the narrative or story-telling feeling predominates it leads to a more or less carefully constructed plot; while the descriptive feeling in predominance is content with the moving portrayal of a series of scenes, without special care for the interaction of events.

The following are the aspects most noticeable in the mixture of the two forms of discourse.

Narration convoyed by Description.

- Every extended narrative must rely on description for some essential features of its structure; or, as is here expressed, it must be convoyed by description. The main offices of description in narration may be described under two heads.

1. Description prepares the scene. The introductory part of any narrative, whether real or fictitious, must be largely an account of the setting of dates, places, customs, characters. Economy requires that just so much description of this kind be given as is needed to explain the succeeding narrative, and no more than can be fully utilized by it.

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A descriptive beginning labors under the disadvantage of delaying the action, and thus not seizing promptly on the reader's interest; this is evinced in the remark often made that one cannot get started" in reading a story. This disadvantage cannot always be avoided without incurring greater ones; but sometimes a striking beginning is made, by dialogue or some narrative element, and the story is carried on in this way until interest is well aroused; whereupon the descriptive introduction is given in a kind of pause, or, less often, by some of the interlocutors. Another way is to give the descriptive introduction piecemeal, in connection with the successive steps of the action or dialogue.

2. Description is the expositor of the narrative. That is, the bearing of events on one another, the significance of characters, the junctures and turning-points of the action, the importance of minute features that would otherwise escape notice, are brought

out mainly by means of description. It is thus an element of great importance for keeping the balance and perspective of the whole. Authors differ greatly in the prominence they give to this descriptive element in narration. With some it is the strong point, and a lack of completeness in the plot is made up by its means; with others it is cut down to a very subordinate office, while the plot absorbs the interest. In all this the writer must follow his individual aptitude; the caution is, not to introduce description so as to disturb the proper movement of the passage, instance, stopping to portray a character or admire a scene in a place where the reader is waiting in eager suspense for a dénouement. The story should be kept moving, according to the ideal pace, rapid or slow, required by its underlying sentiment.

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Discursive Narration. — This name may be given to narrative in which the descriptive feeling predominates. Its characteristic is that the story is not plotted, does not conduct the action to a dénouement, but goes merely where the descriptive element leads it, or is bounded by the natural lapse of time. The account of an excursion, or a race, or a contest, would come under this head; such accounts are popularly called descriptions as often as they are called narratives.

The fact that in such narration interest is centred not in a plot but in a scene leads to an important modification of the style. When, as in a plot, the action is exciting and absorbing, the manner of recounting should be simple; the interest does not require the aid of highly-wrought expression. When, however, it is the scene that absorbs the attention, the language has to be more the language of description; it needs to be rapid, spirited, picturesque, to answer to the life and spirit of the scene, or to portray intense energy in action; or again, it has to be meditative, flowing, charged with sentiment, to answer to the more tranquil emotions. Thus what the account loses in plot it makes up in vividness or in imaginative power.

Sections of discursive narration are often introduced into the midst of plotted narrative, and have partially the effect of an epi

sode, while at the same time they contribute by some secondary incident or feature to the progress of the main story.

NOTE.-A striking instance of this, though not purely narrative, is the account of the Battle of Waterloo, in Victor Hugo's "Cosette" ("Les Misérables "), whose nineteen chapters contribute to the plot of the story only a single incident, and that a minor one. Another example, illustrating well the spirited style of discursive narration, is the account of the boat race, in "Tom Brown at Oxford," Chapter XIII.

II. COMBINATION OF NARRATIVES.

In almost every narrative work that is built on an extended scale, history for example, the writer has to meet the problem how to manage concurring streams of narrative, a problem arising from the fact that many incidents taking place in widely separated scenes, and many characters wholly unknown to each other, may. yet be contributing at the same time to bring about a common culmination of events.

Synchronism of Events. This, as the name implies, is the treatment of events belonging to different departments of the work in such a way that the reader may realize that they are contemporaneous with each other, though in the narration one must precede.

There are several ways in which the events of different streams of narrative may concur. In fiction the concurrence is a work of pure invention, being due to the relations of interwoven plots to each other. Of this something will be said further on. In history a transaction may have antagonistic sides, each of which, for completeness, must be represented in turn; this is seen when opposed forces engage in battle, or when political parties are arrayed against each other in state policy. A broader concurrence is seen in the different departments of a nation's history; as for instance, its constitutional history, its social development, its religious progress, its literature; all of which, as they must be the material of narratives more or less distinct, necessitate a complex point of view. Each department must be presented both as it is in itself, and as it is related to other departments.

Two general means of synchronizing events are chiefly in use, which we may call the literary and the mechanical.

1. In synchronizing by the literary means, the writer chooses as basis of the whole the narrative most significant for his purpose or most fruitful in important events; to this he gives the fullest movement, noting in its course events that stand out as important landmarks for more than one department of the work, and personages that in the part they play serve to connect one story with another. In this way groundwork is laid for constructing history from more than one point of view. When now another narrative, contemporaneous with the first, is taken up, it is constructed as a kind of giving in summary or rapid reference what the other has given in full, and enlarging on those points which the other has designated as landmarks. In this way the reader is kept aware how the different streams of events touch each other.

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An important process in such synchronizing is the management of changes of scene. The scene should not be changed except at the significant turning-points of the history, where one narrative can be trusted to wait for the other; and the change should be distinctly announced as well as kept consistently in view.

EXAMPLES. 1. In his "History of our own Times," Justin McCarthy, after having traced the great political, social, religious, and scientific events of Queen Victoria's reign, thus summarizes, preparatory to giving a survey of the Literature of the Reign:

"The close of the Crimean War is a great landmark in the reign of Queen Victoria. This, therefore, is a convenient opportunity to cast a glance back upon the literary achievements of a period so markedly divided in political interest from any that went before it. The reign of Queen Victoria is the first in which the constitutional and Parliamentary system of government came fairly and completely into recognition. It is also the reign which had the good fortune to witness the great modern development in all that relates to practical invention, and more especially in the application of science to the work of making communication rapid between men. On land and ocean, in air and under the sea, the history of rapid travel and rapid interchange of message coincides with that of the present reign. Such a reign ought to have a distinctive literature. So in truth it has. Of course it is somewhat bold to predict long and distinct renown for contemporaries or contemporary

schools. But it may perhaps be assumed without any undue amount of speculative venturesomeness that the age of Queen Victoria will stand out in history as the period of a literature as distinct from others as the age of Elizabeth or Anne, although not perhaps equal in greatness to the latter, and far indeed below the former."

On this as a background, the great literary men and events are sketched one by one, with frequent reference to the landmarks of the general history, just as in the latter there have been frequent references to the literary events in their place.

2. In Carlyle's account of the Battle of Prag, which may illustrate what may be called synchronism at close quarters, there is noticeable care evinced in the changes of scene. It is from Friedrich's point of view that he gives the narration, and his account of Friedrich's preparations, and of the ground on which the battle is to be fought, is given as seen from the Prussian's position. Then, in order to describe the Austrians' preparation, he changes scene, in the following words: "Let us step across, and take some survey of that Austrian ground, which Friedrich is now surveying from the distance, fully intending that it shall be a battle-ground in few hours; and try to explain how the Austrians drew up on it, when they noticed the Prussian symptoms to become serious more and more." At the end of this description he returns to his original standing-point, in the following words: "Friedrich surveys diligently what he can of all this, from the northern verge. We will now return to Friedrich; and will stay on his side, through the terrible Action that is coming."

2. Mechanical means of showing the synchronism of events are often used to supplement the literary, or are employed along with them. The chief of these are:

The careful division of the narrative into periods, with reference of various departments to their proper positions therein.

The frequent and copious use of summaries.

The construction of charts, tabular views, statistics, and the like, which serve to exhibit many parallel events in one view.

Interwoven Plots. The name plot is applied, in fiction or the drama, to the intricate series of events that are to be unravelled, generally by unexpected means, at the end. Not often, in an extended work, does such a series remain single, or transacted in one scene. Incidents and scenes of subordinate significance may be woven in with the main thread of the story; or two or