experience. Read in two or three histories of the United States the account of some particular event, as the Landing of the Pilgrims, the Signing of the Declaration of Independence, the Battle of Lookout Mountain; then, from your memory and with only such recurrence to the sources of information as may be necessary to assist your memory and verify facts, write an independent account of the same event. Let the language, and indeed everything except the bare, indisputable facts, be as far as possible your own.

Or perhaps you can get not unworthy material near at hand. "Our Class Election," "The Late Rebellion in the Third Ward School," "The Diplomacy of Briggs, Arbitrator," are suggestive subjects of this kind. Treated with all the dignity of actual history they can be made extremely interesting and effective.

We enter here upon work of a very different nature from that which we have been doing. We must deal now with objects as they exist in space and present themselves, complete and unchanging, to our senses. It may seem at first a very simple matter to represent in language an object which is presented to us thus unchanging for an indefinite length of time. But there are many difficulties, some of which have already been hinted at. Our vocabulary with its wonderful wealth of resources can serve only very imperfectly for the portrayal of the infinite variety of objects with which we are surrounded, and so the writer is largely dependent on the knowledge and imagination of the reader. Consider this, too: All the colors of the rainbow strike the eye at the same moment; the several

notes of a chord combine for the ear into one musical sound; the roundness, smoothness, and softness of a rubber ball give to the touch an instantaneous pleasureable sensation. But language must be content to present the separate elements of these complex impressions one at a time. If memory did not come to the reader's assistance and hold for him the separate elements until he has received them all, he could never get a complete picture through the medium of words. Language is evidently, from its very nature, far better adapted to narrating events which occur in succession than to describing objects all of whose parts have a contemporaneous existence. Other difficulties will come to notice as we proceed. We shall simply have to rely on our ingenuity to devise ways of lessening or overcoming them. It is difficulties to be overcome as well as effects to be sought that make of composition an art in itself with a full body of principles — laws and licenses and limitations.

As an example of simple description take the following from Nathaniel Hawthorne :

GRANDFATHER'S CHAIR.

The chair in which Grandfather sat was made of oak, which had grown dark with age, but had been rubbed and polished till it shone as bright as mahogany. It was very large and heavy and had a back that rose high above Grandfather's white head. This back was curiously carved in open work, so as to represent flowers, and foliage, and other devices, which the children had often gazed at, but could never understand what they meant. On the very tip-top of the chair, over the head of Grandfather himself, was a likeness of a lion's head, which had such a savage grin that you would almost expect to hear it growl and snarl.

The children had seen Grandfather sitting in this chair ever

since they could remember anything. Perhaps the younger of them supposed that he and the chair had come into the world together, and that both had always been as old as they were now. At this time, however, it happened to be the fashion for ladies to adorn their drawing-rooms with the oldest and oddest chairs that could be found. It seemed to cousin Clara that, if these ladies could have seen Grandfather's old chair, they would have thought it worth all the rest together. She wondered if it were not even older than Grandfather himself, and longed to know all about its history.

In the above selection the first paragraph is purely descriptive; the second is only indirectly so, being a fanciful way of dwelling upon the age and antique appearance of the chair.

EXERCISE XVII.

MECHANICAL CONTRIVANCES, SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS, ETC.

In the last exercise we handled description in a very general way. There was no attempt to make it exhaustive. Striking features alone were selected, and those perhaps from only one, external point of view. Here the problem is somewhat different. Have the object before you, then try to make your description of it so accurate and complete that any one may get a reasonably clear conception of it, even though he has never seen it. This will necessitate finding distinctive names for the various portions of the object. Such names do not always exist; or if they do, unless we happen to be very well acquainted with the object and its use, they do not readily suggest themselves to us. Notice what frequent use an awkward describer makes

of the words thing, piece, affair, contrivance, etc.,words that have no specific meaning and scarcely help the description along at all, since their value for conveying definite ideas is virtually nil. Notice too how such a describer, if he is talking, makes use of any article that may be at hand to illustrate his meaning. If he is at the dinner table, knife and fork, cup and saucer, salt-cellar and tooth-picks, will all be pressed into service to make up for the deficiencies of language.

Indeed in description of the kind here contemplated, a knowledge of technical terms is almost indispensable. For instance, if you have to describe an air-pump, it will simplify the matter very much if you can use, without further explanation, such terms as cylinder, piston, valve. To describe one of the more complex kinds of steam engines or electrical dynamos, requires great familiarity with the terminology of mechanics. But whatever your own knowledge may be, you will still have to take into consideration the ability of your readers or hearers to understand. If they have not your acquaintance with these technical terms, then both they and you must be content with such imperfect conceptions as are to be derived from general terms which are more widely intelligible though necessarily less exact. Even when both writer and reader have an intimate knowledge of the exact terms, and description reaches its highest perfection, still drawings and photographs are almost indispensable adjuncts. Witness any book or magazine devoted to the special sciences.

There are certain terms, once considered technical perhaps, which to-day should constitute a part of everyone's vocabulary, whether he be specially educated or