rrative step by step, be
guided by the principle of emphasis in all its phases.

=The Initial Position.=--The natural emphasis of the initial and the
terminal position is, in the short-story, a matter of prime
importance. The opening of a perfectly constructed tale fulfills two
purposes, one of which is intellectual and the other emotional.
Intellectually, it indicates clearly to the reader whether, in the
narrative that follows, the element of action, or of character, or of
setting is to be predominant,--in other words, which of the three
sorts of narrative effect the story is intended to produce.
Emotionally, it strikes the key-note and suggests the tone of the
entire story. Edgar Allan Poe, in his greatest tales, planned his
openings infallibly to fulfill these purposes. He began a story of
setting with description; a story of character with a remark made by,
or made about, the leading actor; and a story of action with a
sentence pregnant with potential incident. Furthermore, he conveyed in
his very first sentence a subtle sense of the emotional tone of the
entire narrative.

In opening his short-stories, Hawthorne showed himself far inferior to
his great contemporary. Only unawares did he occasionally hit upon the
inevitable first sentence. Often he wasted time at the beginning by
writing an unnecessary introduction; and frequently he began upon the
wrong track, by suggesting character at the outset of a story of
action, or suggesting setting at the outset of a story of character.
The tale of "The Gentle Boy," for instance, which was one of the first
to attract attention to his genius, begins unnecessarily with an
historical essay of three pages; and it is not until the narrative is
well on its way that the reader is able to sense the one thing that it
is all about.

Mr. Rudyard Kipling, in his earlier stories, employed a method of
opening which is worthy of careful critical consideration. In "Plain
Tales from the Hills" and the several volumes that followed it within
the next few years, his habit was to begin with an expository essay,
filling the space of a paragraph or two, in which he stated the theme
of the story he was about to tell. "This is what the story is to deal
with," he would say succinctly: "Now listen to the tale itself." This
method is extremely advantageous on the score of economy. It gives the
reader at the outset an intellectual possession of the theme; and
knowing from the very beginning the