he says, "The Scots delivered their fire with such constancy and swiftness, it was as if the whole air had become an element of fire—in the ancient summer gloaming there."*

In poetry again, it is constantly employed, as the mention of an individual calls up a picture before the mind. Thus Milton compares Satan, not to a bird, nor to a bird of prey, but to a cormorant.

"Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life

Sat like a cormorant."

This rule is again closely allied with the Law of Fulness. If you know a story completely, you can describe it with every living detail, just as if you had it all before your eyes. One rule, therefore, under this head, may be thus stated:

Try to see what you are describing.

Of course enumeration of particulars may be carried too far; and in some kinds of narrative it might become tiresome and a little pedantic to describe work-people as "those who held the plough, or drove the looms of Norwich, or squared the stones of St. Paul's." This must be left to the taste of the writer, who must allow himself to be guided in all things by his feelings of simplicity and truthfulness. If Roget's "Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases" is ever of use to a person engaged in composition, it will be of use in reference to this point. After the paper is written, but not during the writing of it, Roget, or some such book, might be used, to give a higher degree of specification to the statements, always providing that this specification is in keeping with the facts and with the sincere feeling of the paper. But there is no surer way of crippling real power

* Quoted by Minto, p. 197.

than by using Roget during the process of composition. Thus under Resentment Roget gives such words as displeasure, pique, umbrage, asperity, heart-burning, etc., etc. Under Horse he gives steed, cob, charger, courser, roadster, pony, and so on. In some narratives, certain of these words might be admissible, and others in others.

he says, "The Scots delivered their fire with such constancy and swiftness, it was as if the whole air had become an element of fire-in the ancient summer gloaming there."*

In poetry again, it is constantly employed, as the mention of an individual calls up a picture before the mind. Thus Milton compares Satan, not to a bird, nor to a bird of prey, but to a cormorant.

"Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life

Sat like a cormorant."

This rule is again closely allied with the Law of Fulness. If you know a story completely, you can describe it with every living detail, just as if you had it all before your eyes. One rule, therefore, under this head, may be thus stated :

Try to see what you are describing.

:

Of course enumeration of particulars may be carried too far; and in some kinds of narrative it might become tiresome and a little pedantic to describe work-people as "those who held the plough, or drove the looms of Norwich, or squared the stones of St. Paul's." This must be left to the taste of the writer, who must allow himself to be guided in all things by his feelings of simplicity and truthfulness. If Roget's "Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases" is ever of use to a person engaged in composition, it will be of use in reference to this point. After the paper is written, but not during the writing of it, Roget, or some such book, might be used, to give a higher degree of specification to the statements, always providing that this specification is in keeping with the facts and with the sincere feeling of the paper. But there is no surer way of crippling real power

* Quoted by Minto, p. 197.

than by using Roget during the process of composition. Thus under Resentment Roget gives such words as displeasure, pique, umbrage, asperity, heart-burning, etc., etc. Under Horse he gives steed, cob, charger, courser, roadster, pony, and so on. In some narratives, certain of these words might be admissible, and others in others.

T

CHAPTER V.

THE LAW OF PLAINNESS.

HE ground of this law lies in the fact that the 1 weight or importance of what we have to say comes from the statement itself, and not from the

manner of stating. We cannot add to the weight of a thing by the way we put it into the scales. A fact always tells its own story; and our duty is, as it were, only to stand aside and let it dɔ so.

That is to say,

real eloquence lies in the facts we have to carrate, in the light in which they lie, and in the feelings they give rise to— not in the words made about them and about them. The case here is similar to that described in the question,—

"Which of you by taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? And why take ye thought for the rest ?"

The greatest literary men and poets have felt this most strongly, and have always been more anxious to get at the real facts about and the feelings of the men and women they describe, than to find the phrases to describe them. Shakspeare makes King Lear, when his heart is almost bursting with disappointment and indignation, say only this :—

"Pray you undo this button: thank you, sir."

A weather-beaten sailor is shortly and simply introduced by Chaucer in the line:

"With many a tempest had his beard been shake;"