beyond
the minimum did the followers of the dogged method ever produce.

[31] #Scan#: contain the right number of syllables with the
accents in the proper places.

[32] #False quantities#: long syllables placed where short
ones should be used or the reverse.

[33] #Concord#: the agreement of words in construction, as
adjectives with nouns in gender, number, and case.

The third, or artistic method, was Arthur's. He considered first what
point in the character or event which was the subject could most
neatly be brought out within the limits of a Vulgus; trying always to
get his idea into the eight lines, but not binding himself to ten or
even twelve lines if he couldn't do this. He then set to work, as much
as possible without Gradus or other help, to clothe his idea in
appropriate Latin or Greek, and would not be satisfied till he had
polished it well up with the aptest and most poetic words and phrases
he could get at.

A fourth method indeed was used in the school, but of too simple a
kind to require comment. It may be called the vicarious[34] method,
obtained amongst big boys of lazy or bullying habits, and consisted
simply in making clever boys whom they could thrash do their whole
Vulgus for them, and construe it to them afterward; which latter is
a method not to be encouraged, and which I strongly advise you all
not to practise. Of the others, you will find the traditionary most
troublesome, unless you can steal the Vulguses whole (_experto
crede_),[35] and that the artistic method pays the best, both in marks
and other ways.

[34] #Vicarious#: acting for another. Here it means, having it
done for em by another.

[35] #Experto crede#: believe one who has had experience.

MARTIN'S DEN.

The Vulguses being finished by nine o'clock, and Martin having
rejoiced above measure in the abundance of light, and of Gradus and
dictionary, and other conveniences almost unknown to him for getting
through the work, and having been pressed by Arthur to come and do his
verses there whenever he liked, the three boys went down to Martin's
den, and Arthur was initiated into the lore of birds' eggs, to his
great delight. The exquisite coloring and forms astonished and charmed
him who had scarcely even seen any but a hen's egg or an ostrich's,
and by the time he was lugged away to bed he had learned the names of
at least twenty sorts, and dreamed of the glorious perils of tree
climbing,