hey ever made. It
would be hurtful to exercise children frequently in descriptive
composition; it would give them the habit of exact observation, it is
true, but something more is necessary to the higher species of poetry.
Words must be selected which do not represent only, but which suggest,
ideas. Minute veracity is essential to some sorts of description; but
in a higher style of poetry, only the large features characteristic of
the scene must be produced, and all that is subordinate must be
suppressed. Sir Joshua Reynolds justly observes, that painters, who
aim merely at deception of the eye by exact imitation, are not likely,
even in their most successful imitations, to rouse the imagination.
The man who mistook the painted fly for a real fly, only brushed, or
attempted to brush it, away. The exact representation of such a common
object, could not raise any sublime ideas in his mind; and when he
perceived the deception, the wonder which he felt at the painter's
art, was a sensation no wise connected with poetic enthusiasm.

As soon as young people have collected a variety of ideas, we can
proceed a step in the education of their fancy. We should sometimes in
conversation, sometimes in writing or in drawing, show them how a few
strokes, or a few words, can suggest or combine various ideas. A
single expression from Caesar, charmed a mutinous army to instant
submission. Unless the words "_Roman Citizens!_" had suggested more
than meets the ear, how could they have produced this wonderful
effect? The works of Voltaire and Sterne abound with examples of the
skilful use of the language of suggestion: on this the wit of
Voltaire, and the humour and pathos of Sterne, securely depend for
their success. Thus, corporal Trim's eloquence on the death of his
young master, owed its effect upon the whole kitchen, including "the
fat scullion, who was scouring a fish-kettle upon her knees," to the
well-timed use of the mixed language of action and suggestion.

"'Are we not here now?' continued the corporal (striking the end of
his stick perpendicularly upon the floor, so as to give an idea of
health and stability) 'and are we not' (dropping his hat upon the
ground) 'gone in a moment?'"

"Are we not here now, and gone in a moment?" continues Sterne, who, in
this instance, reveals the secret of his own art. "There was nothing
in the sentence; it was one of your self-evident truths we have the
advantage of hearing every day; and if T