CARE REQUISITE IN INVENTION. 319 Modern Greece is an interesting country. The people are not so strong and remarkable as in ancient times, but they speak a similar language, and are very proud of the fame of their ancestors. All the civilized world would rejoice to see them equal and surpass, if possible, ancient Greece in its palmiest days. We give this brief and simple specimen to show the process of Invention. Its laws are simple and uniform. 12. Another Statement of the Process of Invention.— First there must be a theme, around which thoughts will cluster. Second, the thoughts must be gathered. If already in the mind, they must be collated according to the laws of association, by which the memory works. If not all there, then the few thoughts which led to the selection of the theme must show the writer where to go, or what to do, to collect thoughts. Comparisons, metaphors, allusions, and all other figures of speech arising, must be noticed; if counted worthy or appropriate, they should be used. If not, let them be rejected. 13. Importance of Thoroughness in acquiring Information. It is well to use the pen freely in gathering information. Sometimes a good writer will spend hours, and days, and even weeks, in collecting thoughts and illustrations on a subject, and then spend hours in arranging them into an outline, and finally write out the essay, or oration, or book, in a much shorter time than was spent collecting the material. The great fault of young writers is that they do not learn to invent. They try to write or speak, with nothing to speak or write about. Gather abundant material first. Do not say that this is impossible. It is not so. Would you write about the town or city in which you reside? Take a note-book and travel about the town, and make memoranda of what you see. Read what others have written about it, if you wish to. Seek comparisons, metaphors, etc., that you can appropriately use. You will probably surprise yourself, and your friends, by the abundance and accuracy of your information. 14. Value of Descriptive Writing.-Descriptions are the kind of productions upon which the young should write, until they acquire facility in the construction of outlines, and in filling them up. Sometimes speeches, dialogues, and other kinds of composition can be introduced, in the midst of descriptions. 15. Common Themes may be chosen.-In the selection of Themes it would be well not to slight common sub jects near at hand. An old oak tree, or any other particular tree; a street, or square, or hotel, or factory, in the place where you live, would richly repay examination; and of course a long and minute examination must precede a description. Why do young writers, or indeed any but the best-informed minds, find it so difficult to describe the ocean, spring, summer, etc., the sun, the starry heavens? It is because they know so little about them. Why not select subjects that they do understand? No teacher of youth can fail to have noticed many aspiring young men who were very anxious to study elocution before they had any thing to speak about, and rhetoric, without laying the proper foundation. 16. Opinions of Bacon upon the proper Time to study WHEN SHOULD RHETORIC BE STUDIED. 321 Rhetoric.-Lord Bacon, in his "Advancement of Learning," Book I., says: "Scholars in universities come too soon and too unripe to logic and rhetoric, arts fitter for graduates than children and novices; for these two, rightly taken, are the gravest of sciences, being the art of arts; the one for judgment, the other for ornament; and they be the rules and directions how to set forth and dispose matter, and therefore for minds empty and unfraught with matter, and which have not gathered that which Cicero calleth sylva and supellex, stuff and variety, to begin with those arts (as if one should learn to weigh, or to measure, or to paint the wind), doth work but this effect, that the wisdom of those arts, which is great and universal, is almost made contemptible, and is degenerated into childish sophistry and ridiculous affectation." It does not follow that young pupils should not be trained to write and speak. It is an idle theory, and pernicious in its effects, to postpone all study of rhetoric till the conclusion of education-but early should all learn the fact, that the collection of information, and of thought, is the greatest and most essential work of a writer and speaker. 17. Themes in Description.-For practical exercise we subjoin a list of subjects upon which students may exercise their ingenuity, and would recommend that each person collect information and classify it in an outline or sketch, and complete an essay on at least two of the following themes. It would be well to write on all of them. 1. A Description of my Native State. 2. The Great American Desert. 6. The Gulf of Mexico. 7. Relics of Pre-historic Men in America. 8. Oak Trees. 9. The City of Washington. 10. The Supreme Court of the United States. 11. The largest Railway in the Country. 12. The Bible. 13. A Hive of Honey-bees. 14. Beavers and their Customs. 15. Ancient Babylon. 16. A Ship of War. 17. The Steam Engine. 18. The Pyramids. 19. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. INVENTION IN NARRATION. 323 CHAPTER III. INVENTION IN NARRATIONS. 18. Definition. -NARRATIONS embrace historical writings of every grade. The highest talent has found full scope in this kind of writing. It naturally follows, if indeed it does not accompany, Descriptions. Having described an object as it is at one moment, it is natural to describe the changes which it undergoes. Narration deals principally with persons, though it embraces only actions and things. 19. Laws of Invention applicable to Narrations.-The laws of Invention with reference to Narration are, in principle, precisely the same as with reference to Description. In both, great care must be taken not to dwell too much on unimportant facts or objects, and not to neglect what is really essential. If a painter endeavors to crowd too much on the canvas, he confuses the attention and spoils the picture. Great skill can be acquired by practice in making a narrative vivid. 20. Some Practical Directions.-It is a profitable exercise to narrate occurrences in one's own history or under his own observation. Has the school with which he is connected had no history? Could he not learn a series of facts about it, by study, that would be in |