PART II CHAPTER VI IMAGINATION IN DESCRIPTION Imagination bodies forth the forms of things unknown. SHAKESPEARE. 111. Two ways of describing. In the descriptions of objects, places, and people, given in the exercises of Chapter IV, the requirement was to tell the simple facts as they were observed. Facts are essential to all good description, but something else is usually necessary, and that is the meaning of the facts as shown by the impression they make on the observer. In the descriptions written in the letters required by the exercises of Chapter V, the student probably laid half-conscious emphasis on the impressions made upon him by the people and things which he described. It is often desirable to use one's imagination more deliberately. 112. Imagination. Imagination combines different ideas obtained from observation into a new whole, never actually seen. If the student were asked, for instance, to describe his ideal hero, he would, perhaps, give him the handsome features of Mr. ; the physical strength and vigor of the football captain; and the kindness and sympathy of his own father. In other words, to make one imaginary person, he would put together facts already observed about several different people. 113. General value of imagination. Some pupils, when asked to use their imagination, say, "Oh, I have n't any imagination. I can tell you what I see 'make up' things. I'm practical." or hear, but I can't Pupils who say this are doubtless honest, but they are mistaken. Although people differ greatly in imaginative power, yet no intelligent being wholly lacks it. Nearly all games and sports derive their charm from the use of imagination. The small boy who is absorbed in leading his tin soldiers to battle receives pleasure not so much from the sight of his toys as from his imagination, which transforms those insignificant objects into living people, performing real deeds. The same boy, grown older, speeds toward the goal with the football, not because the inflated piece of leather under his arm is so precious to him, but because he imagines all that it stands for in the way of possible personal success and glory for his school. Imagination helps one to get from reading or listening "mental pictures" of people, places, and events that one has never seen. Books would mean little to the reader if he could not call up a picture of what is described or narrated. Paintings would usually give little pleasure if the beholder could not imagine the originals in real life. Imagination helps one to infer causes and effects. The scientist, who is supposed to be the most practical of men, must use his imagination to draw his conclusions and formulate his theories. He does not consider imagination useless; he is only more careful than most people to base his imagination on facts, and to make it conform to necessity or probability. The business man uses his imagination constantly to forecast the public tastes and demands, and the rise or fall of prices. 114. Value of imagination in description. Imagination gives to oral and written description the vividness and force that would otherwise often be lacking. It does this in two ways: by supplying missing details which are needed for a complete "mental picture," and by selecting and arranging the details that will produce a powerful general impression. 115. Supplying missing details. One of the first ways in which imagination is practically used in composition is in supplying details not already given. Some practice in this kind of work was given under "expanding another person's thought." Below are given two exercises, assigned by a teacher for practice in supplying details. The first example is a single general statement; the second, a series of detached phrases. The descriptions in which the details are supplied are taken verbatim from the notebooks of second-year pupils in the high school. Ex. 1. Tim was a typical newsboy. TIM THE NEWSBOY Tim Dolan was about three feet tall, with red hair, a freckled face, a pug nose, large mouth and ears, and small blue eyes that could look very angry if their owner thought he was being imposed on. His clothes were clean and whole, but much patched and darned. He had a voice as shrill as a fish-horn, and when he shouted "'Erald, Sun, Globe, and Wur-r-ld all about the big fire!" you could hear him two blocks away. He had to help his mother, who was a washerwoman, support three younger children, and he had gained the name of "Tim the Hustler" by the zeal with which he worked from five o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at night. He was fearless of danger, and would swing himself upon a swiftly moving car with one hand, and after selling his paper drop off again, under the very nose of an indignant cab horse. Indeed, he was the terror of policemen because he was always risking his life by dodging in and out of the most dangerous places. Bad as he undoubtedly was, he never was known to lie, or to steal from another newsboy. More than once he had been known to help out a less industrious or fortunate comrade by the loan of a few pennies, although this meant his going supperless to bed himself. He would only whistle all the louder and joke all the harder to drown his hunger. train just arrived old wagons Ex. 2. Small railway station in country A RAILWAY STATION AT TRAIN TIME It was the day before Christmas, and there was an unusual air of life about the little station at L———. The train for Boston and way-stations had just arrived. The engineer swung himself down from the cab to oil his engine, and the conductor went into the telegraph office for his train orders. Two or three aged men, who were "going up to town to spend Christmas with their relatives, and had been comparing notes on the weather in one corner of the barren waiting-room, tottered gaily out on to the platform. Most of the men had been there some time, cracking jokes, trading horses, or thrashing their arms across their chests to keep themselves warm. These jumped briskly aboard the train and sought the warmth of the smoking-car. The driver of the rickety hotel carriage drew his gray woolen cap tighter over his ears and stolidly waited for his solitary passenger, a Canadian drummer. Deacon Jones, who had driven over to meet his son Edward and his wife and baby, drew up to the platform as cautiously as if he expected his twenty-year-old mare to play the coltish trick of running away. The half-dozen women and children who had come from the train and had been muffling their heads in hoods and veils, came from the waiting-room chattering shrilly, and drove off with their waiting relatives. 116. General directions for supplying details. 1. Decide upon the kind of details that will be most interesting and characteristic; as, for instance, in the case of Tim the Newsboy,- features, voice, energy, good-nature. 2. Next, imagine the special details. These must be made definite by the careful use of picturesque adjectives and comparisons. In the description of Tim, "red" hair, "freckled" face, voice "like a fish-horn," help to give a clear picture. NOTE. This comparison of the high-pitched voice with the shrill fish-horn is a figure of speech called a simile. An expressed comparison of one object with another which it resembles in some one striking particular is called a simile. Since it will often be convenient to use similes in imaginative descriptions, it may now be well to read what is said of this figure of speech in its fuller treatment in Section 304. 3. It would be possible to go on imagining details indefinitely, but this would not of necessity add to the value of the description. To economize time and interest, the best of many possible details should be selected. In describing Tim, the writer might have told also about his forehead, his hands, and his feet; but this catalogue of details would have been wearisome. It is no more desirable in imaginary description to give every detail than it is in drawing to trace every separate leaf of a tree. 4. Unless your description is intended to be a caricature, or a wild flight of imagination, select probable, or |