Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1889-03-07
ART OF DESCRIPTION.
METHODS EMPLOYED BY SOME OF
THE LITERARY HACKS.

A va, IN Ft.d Auusemeps IN ReadinG.
Buuvap,. VIVID Scene Painting -Fl.s-
bert. Graphic Prose-zoia's Wo.ds<fd
acknowledgements
To describe-it signifies little what, pro
vided the thing be strange to us-in SUCH man
per that words convey q distinct impression
thereof. is certainly one Of the rarest ar0
The gentlemen who tell Us every day that We
are a nation Of Philissines, unacquainted with
the sense Of artistic fitness, if not unable TO
comprehend it, might ind some moral In
stances in this theme The rashness with
which our poets and writers Launch tnem-
selves into description is equaled only by the
amiable simplicity of the public which accepts
their tumble Of adjectives as word picture
We would not mention names.
But Young people at loss for amusement
might find it diverting TO take sketch oy
Mr. Anybody Almost, the successful novelist,
read it aloud. and invite each member OF the
group to define, by word or pencil, the idea
actually produced upon his mind The re-
suit, we venture TO say, would be comic
yet Mr. Anybody Almost is fancied among
his admirers for power and exactitude OF de-
scription- He gives himself, for instance, TO
= portrayal OF the sea and sky. To succeed
in this line Of art, ones first care apparently
should be to collect all the words in the Eng
lish language which deal with color. Having
made an inventory of them one looks out
quaint suf Of nouns substantive connected
with the ocean and the heavens A quota
ton or two from the poets and from scrip
ture, undistinguished by inverted commas, is
useful Mix these ingredients and serve. Tho
public cannot fail to be delighted There is
no particular meaning in the composition,
but none is asked
II one regard it clause by clause, it mas
neither outline nor substance; it is no more Q
picture than is the casual combination Of
colors in palette. But the words are sanor-
Gus, or perhaps sweet. They cover a certain
space upon the page, enough to suggest that
the author had some distinct intelligence in
writing them And he himself supplies the
plaudits; tells, like a Snowman, what you
are about to see. 1t must be the fault of
your own eyesight il you do not catch the
view. A young lady begins, perhaps: "Oh,
what heavenly heavenly scene, Ferdinandol
Oh, observe that And then the author
strikes in with q fresh paragraph: ut was
indeed heavenly scene, as Miranda declared"
so he opens his assorted vocabulary. This
kind of thing is description as a Turkey car
pet is picture.
WHAT THE MASTERS FAVE DONE.
We are speaking of description as an art,
in which sense number Of the greatest mas
tiers do not properly come under view.
Whether by accident or design, or by the
mere force Of circumstances, they did not
travel beyond the range of those ideas which
are, as one may say fixed in everybody's
mind. Such ideas meet the writer half way,
but that is a perilous advantage for the I'M
skilful. 1t is natural that we should find the
most charming as the most vigorous examples
of this power in works Of an unsophisticated
age. Nowhere that we recall does Bunyan
go beyond the range of fixed ideas, and thus
every one of us finds picture at every page.
Who fails to see that street in Old Bedford,
and the tinker coming where there were
three or four old women sitting at a door in
the sun talking about the things of Godf'-or
the time when he sat by the fire in his house,
''musng on his wretchednessI"-ort that clear
est scene of all, when he walked to a neigh
boring town and sat down upon settle in
the street, and fell into a very deep panic
about the most fearful state my sin had
brought me into"-we will not quote pas
sage which every boy knows by Macaulayb
reference, if not by reading the original So
clean cut, finished, it is, that one could
swear to the locality, in manner of speaking.
Yet, if the mere words be scrutinized Bun
yam gives us scarcely hint of his actual sur
roundings. A town unnamed, a settle, man
lost in sad thoughts, the sun that shineth in
the heavens, the stones in the streets and the
tiles upon the houses, that is ALL In the "Pil-
grim's Progress" itself we have the same
thing Conceptions habitual to every one are
touched and heightened by genius, but the
of sir bo
property of mankind The Slough of De-
spond" does not claim to be anything beyond
bog; the Delectable mountains are such
view of fell and slope glowing softly on the
horizon as is familiar to all inhabitants of .
plain. No word disturbs the easy compre-
hension of the reader, which is due to his own
mind, not to the description. 1t is the same
case with Izaak Walton and with Defoe
AMONG THE NATURALIsTs
Description as an art has reached its high
est pitch in the works of the naturalist
school 1t may be asserted with confidence
that they will never be surpassed. Flaubert
was marvellous We do not believe that any
man who has brains enough and fancy
enough to understand what he is reading
when he takes up "Salambo" can forget the
opening scene in the gardens of Hamilcar's
palace Twenty-Five years have passed, may
be, since the first edition came out, and we
ourselves have not looked at it since; but
that picture stands fresh before our eyes, not
alone. If the scenes in Madame Bovaryn
stamp themselves less clearly on our recollec-
tion it is not because they have less force, but
because the story is less impressive than that
tremendous 'Salambo." But Emile lola has
reached a point more lofty still in art
though not by any means, in power. Good
Britons who know France well are puzzled
by the influence of writer in which they
can see absolutely nothing beyond shameless
indecency
Convinced by experience that the French
public is at least as moral as our own, their
faith is constantly disturbed by the acknowl-
edgment-even from those who shrink in dis
gust-that lola is great artist quand meme.
We suspect that these worthy people have
never read his descriptions Used to the
hotch-potch of adjectives which goes by that
name in England they skip those passages
where the genius is revealed, which no man
of culture can peruse without admiration
There are hundreds of such-a score in every
volume at least-which might be set as an ex-
ercise in composition before boys and girls;
but that is beside our purpose. When We con-
slider the method by which Flaubert and Zola
obtained their powerful effects, it proves to
be simple, like all grand art. They pile up
details with endless patience and rigid con-
scientiousness, until the readers mind is full
He cannot help himself, provided, that is, he
have patience and comprehension of fine
workmanship, to read-London Standard.