5. Record your impression of some object passing swiftly by you, as a face in the window of a passing train, a person on a rapidly moving bicycle, or a bird flying. 6. Study one of the descriptive selections in this book to ascertain if the details are introduced in the order the author most likely saw them. SECTION 71 Some Difficulties Serious difficulties confront us when we try to describe an object we have seen, especially when we try to give our impression of the appearance of an object in such a way as to produce in the mind of the reader a mental image more or less like our own. To begin with, words succeed each other in time, and lag along at a snail's pace when compared with the swift flight of our organs of sight. The result of this disparity in speed is that the first detail in a word description is frequently forgotten by the reader before the last detail, which is to complete the description, is reached. Then, words are used mainly to describe the parts of the object seen, which parts the reader must laboriously put together before he can get a mental picture of the object as a whole. The process, says Coleridge,1" seems to be like taking the pieces of a dissected map out of its box. We first look at one part and then at another, then join and dovetail them; and when the successive acts of attention have been compléted, there is a retrogressive effort of mind to behold it as a whole." The result of all this is so unsatisfactory that not unfrequently the poorest model or photograph or drawing produces a more vivid mental image of an object than the most highly polished 1 In Biographia Literaria, chap. xxii. word description.1 It is difficult indeed to make words do the duty of eyes. The one way partially to overcome the difficulties besetting word description seems to be this: Determine as precisely as you can the stages through which your own perception of an object has passed, and then describe the object in such a way as to compel the reader to follow these stages. The order of these stages has been indicated in a general way in the preceding section, and need not be gone over again here. It is of the utmost importance that you do not omit from the beginning of your description your first general impression of the object you describe. A common error is either to omit this first general impression altogether, or to report it, perhaps inexactly, elsewhere than at the beginning of the description. In either case the details of the description lose in effectiveness by not being properly prepared for. It is this first general impression which prepares the way for the details that follow, and which gives to these details much of their significance. If each detail in a description is introduced in the order in which it is seen, and is properly prepared for by the first general impression, — if each detail in a description is made to grow out of the first general impression, the reader is then enabled, as fully as he ever can be enabled by mere words, to see the object described as a whole and in all its parts. Exercise 84 Write a description of three or four of the objects experimented with in Exercise 83, introducing the details in the order in which you 1 At this stage it may be well to compare the arts of painting and sculpture with the art of description. The matter is thoroughly discussed in Lessing's Laokoön, chaps. xvi-xvii. See Exercise 92 (24). U saw them. Do not forget the caution about your first general impression of the object you describe. SECTION 72 The Point of View In de The point of view is important in description. scription of any sort you either take your stand at some point, and tell what you see from that point, or you pass among the objects you describe, and, taking your reader with you in imagination, describe them as you pass. This position is called the point of view. It may be stationary, -it most commonly is stationary, or it may move from one place to another. If the point of view is stationary, the main thing is to keep from shifting it and introducing details which could not be seen from the point at which the reader is placed to look at the thing described. "The description of a prospect from some point near a river bank must not speak of the stream as a silver thread, nor of the coarse prairie grass all about as velvety. It would be an equally gross error were the same scene described from some high bluff, to speak of the prairie grass, with its gaudy flowers and its countless insects, as a miniature tropical forest, a comparison apt enough to a man lying on his back in the tangle of it." If, on the other hand, the point of view is progressive, and the reader is led in imagination among the objects described, it is necessary to keep clearly in mind and to inform the reader of each change in the point of sight. The least vagueness here may render a description, otherwise admirable, confusing and even absurd. The reader must know not only what 1 C. S. Baldwin, Specimens of Prose Description, introduction. he looks at, but the point from which he is supposed to look at it. No description can be effective which does not conform to this rule. Exercise 85 1. Determine the point of view in each of the descriptive selections in this book. Is any detail introduced which could not be seen from the point of view adopted by the author? 2. Note in the following selection where the point of view changes, and how the reader is informed of the change: THE BULLER OF BUCHAN Upon these rocks there was nothing that could long detain attention, and we soon turned our eyes to the Buller or Bouilloir of Buchan, which no man can see with indifference, who has either sense of danger or delight in rarity. It is a rock perpendicularly tubulated, united on one side with a high shore, and on the other rising steep to a great height above the main sea. The top is open, from which may be seen a dark gulf of water which flows into the cavity through a breach made in the lower part of the enclosing rock. It has the appearance of a vast well bordered with a wall. The edge of the Buller is not wide, and to those that walk round appears very narrow. that ventures to look downward sees that if his foot should slip, he must fall from his dreadful elevation upon stones on one side, or into the water on the other. We, however, went round, and were glad when the circuit was completed. He When we came down to the sea we saw some boats and rowers, and resolved to explore the Buller at the bottom. We entered the arch, which the water had made, and found ourselves in a place which, though we could not think ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey without some recoil of the mind. The basin in which we floated was nearly circular, perhaps thirty yards in diameter. We were enclosed by a natural wall, rising steep on every side to a height which produced the idea of insurmountable confinement. The interception of all lateral light caused a dismal gloom. Round us was a perpendicular rock, above us the distant sky, and below an unknown profundity of water. If I had any malice against a walking spirit, instead of laying him in the Red Sea, I would condemn him to reside in the Buller of Buchan.-JOHNSON, A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. 3. Write a description of the view from a high hill. Indicate carefully the point of view. 4. Passing among the objects described in 3, indicate in your description each change in the point of view. 5. Describe a scene viewed from a tower or from a window in a high building. 6. Describe a busy street scene in a city from a window overlooking the street. 7. Describe the same scene as you pass down the street. 8. Describe a scene observed while riding on a train. Indicate clearly the point of view. 9. Write a description of a scene near your home during a sudden shower. Imagine that you are standing under the branches of a great oak, which partially shelter you from the down-pouring rain. Do not change the point of view. 10. Describe the house in which you live. Take your position at two or three advantageous points, and inform the reader when you change from one to the other. 11. Describe some interesting house or other building where you live, (1) from without and (2) from within. Inform the reader when you pass within the building. 12. Select several familiar objects or scenes which you think you would like to describe, and determine the best point of view from which to look at them. 13. Take a walk to a favorite retreat, and describe what you see on your way. Indicate every alteration in the point of sight. SECTION 73 The Point of Time A point of time is as essential to many descriptions as a point of view is to all descriptions. That is, the impression got from a landscape, for example, may be quite |