C. THE CONCEPTION ESSENTIAL

The conception of composition as an art is essential, then only because it is the true conception, but because it pro a satisfactory method of study and practice. Through i can come to have a just notion of the place that natural al and individuality should have in our work; we can see the of studying the theory of composition and models of good wri we can appreciate the fundamental importance of practice can understand the limitations that are imposed upon us by subject-matter and the character of written language; we see the necessity of premeditation or design; and we ca the further necessity of bringing multiplicity of details u the molding influence of a few great principles. Scarcely important is the fact that we are guided away from the en rassment of assuming that since "writing is writing," we express ourselves effectively only when we phrase our tho in elevated diction. In other words, we are made to see writing may be instrumental or useful art as well as fine We shall hold to this conception in all the chapters that fo

READINGS AND EXERCISES

1. If you wish to see the importance of full, accurate communic in a people's life, read C. H. Cooley's Social Organization. Scribner's Sons.

2. Read Luther Halsey Gulick's The Spirit of the Game in Outlook for March 16, 1907 (Vol. 85, p. 615). This is an intere presentation of the influence of good spirit on one's work.

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3. Professor Palmer's Self-Cultivation in English shows very how anyone can increase the effectiveness of his writing if only willing to work. Every student ought to read and reread this book. It is published by Houghton Mifflin Company.

4. Professor Brander Matthews's article on The Duty of Imito in the Outlook, Jan. 14, 1911 (Vol. 97, p. 77), distinguishes bet helpful and harmful imitation.

5. Are you personally acquainted with a skilled worker in art? Do you know how he works? Did you ever talk with him a

his ideals in art? Do you think it would be possible to learn anything from him about writing? Read the Reminiscences of SaintGaudens in the Century Magazine, Vols. 77 and 78.

6. La Farge's Considerations on Painting will be profitable reading for anyone who is interested in imaginative writing. Read especially Chapter II.

7. If you wish to study other classifications of writing that are based upon the essential difference between useful art and fine art, read De Quincey's discussion of the literature of knowledge and the literature of power, Professor J. H. Gardiner's longer discussion of literature of thought and literature of feeling, and Professor C. S. Baldwin's treatment of logical composition and literary composition.

De Quincey, Essays on Style, Rhetoric, and Language, pp. 238–240. Allyn and Bacon.

Gardiner, The Forms of Prose Literature, Introduction. Charles Scribner's Sons.

Baldwin, A College Manual of Rhetoric, Introduction. Longmans, Green, and Company.

CHAPTER II - THE WRITER'S MATERIAL

I. THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD MATERIAL

In writing, as in every other art, the first thing to consid material. To be sure, good material alone will not make wri effective. As Mr. William M. Chase has said concerning terial for paintings, one man's picture of a potato may be gre than another's of an angel, because of superior treatm Similarly, in the field of literature we occasionally find a s story writer like Guy de Maupassant or a poet like Swinbu who, with the slightest material, gains literary eminence thro his remarkable technical perfection. Yet cases of this are rare. Usually, if what we are asked to read is very sl in substance, we can see no reason for its existence; and q naturally we exclaim, " Well, what of it?" There is no p for the reader, simply because there was no definite, substan idea in the mind of the writer. As Voltaire put it, a man m always write badly when he has nothing to say. And Lo was quite justified in his remark: "Blessed are those who h nothing to say-and cannot be persuaded to say it!" communication without substance, however graceful or brilli the technique of the writer, is fundamentally absurd. Th can be no real definiteness, no real sincerity, where the wri is essentially empty.

II. THE CHARACTER OF GOOD MATERIAL

All incidents, all facts, all ideas, are not necessarily good terial for composition. The writer must not be content w saying something; he must say something significant. other words, he must exercise judgment in choosing what h

to write about. First opinions of what is worth most are by no means always supported by maturer judgment. It is evident that the tests applied to material intended for informational writing cannot be used if the writing is designed to amuse or charm. Moreover, all facts are not equally significant, all ideas are not equally sound, all occurrences are not equally true to life; nor will the material that appeals to one reader and suits one occasion be equally well adapted to every other reader and occasion. Considering these differences in the character of material, both in its general possibilities and in its particular availability for a given piece of writing, it is plainly a matter of importance to the student of composition to develop a reliable judgment in determining what is good material and what is not.

A. TRUTH

In the first place, it is essential that the subject-matter be true. No writing can possibly be convincing which conveys material that is in any way false, for a reader will not give his attention long after the reliability and good faith of the writer have come into question. To be sure, there are various kinds of truth. Truth as a quality of writing is never absolute any more than it is necessarily literal. The truth of history or science is one thing, the truth of philosophy or criticism is another; the truth of fiction is not the truth of the fairy tale, nor is the truth of realism the truth of romance.

1. In instrumental writing. In writing that is intended to give information, such as biography or history or science, truth is primarily truth to fact; that is, accuracy. When anyone receives a letter specifying the terms of a business transaction, or reads a newspaper account of some public movement, or consults an encyclopedia for the details of some famous piece of engineering, he wants actual information and he must be able to depend upon the writer to give him the exact truth. Nor is this accuracy in detail, this matter of unassailably 'true

facts, any mean virtue. But a fuller accuracy is n though often disregarded. As Parkman says in his I tion to the Pioneers of France in the New World:1 ness to the truth of history involves far more than a however patient and scrupulous, into special facts facts may be detailed with the most minute exactness, the narrative, taken as a whole, may be unmeaning or The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life a of the time. He must study events in their bearings n remote; in the character, habits, and manners of the took part in them. He must himself be, as it were, or a spectator of the action he describes." It is this c accuracy, this telling of the whole truth, which the " p writer so often misses. It is easy to collect facts wh demonstrably true in themselves, yet present them in that will seriously violate essential truth. All too journalists write sensational articles about public men o causes which are inaccurate and unfair because they complete facts. Likewise, the scientist who goes too simplifying the facts of nature for the popular mind ously misleading. The writer should remember, the his social duty demands not only that he adhere to litera but also that he strive after complete truth.

Much writing, however, which appeals primarily to a er's intellect does not convey facts; it explains or urges In material of this kind, truth is not truth to fact, but t reason; that is, soundness. The writer who has opinions the social life of his college or his city, about the condu friend or a public official, must test them not so much b accuracy in matters of fact, but rather by their reasonab He must ask himself whether his ideas are the result of true thinking or, on the contrary, thinking which is or superficial or prejudiced. So the difference in the va two men's discussion of an educational or civic issue may well be basically a difference in the soundness of the idea 1 Copyright by Little, Brown, and Company.