stand. It compels him to
select definite images, and it urges him to use the common and the
concrete. It frequently drives him to use comparisons.

Use of Comparisons.

To represent the extremely bare and unornamented appearance of a
building, one might write, "It looked like a great barn," or "It was a
great barn." In either case the image would be definite, common, and
concrete. In both cases there is a comparison. In the first, where the
comparison is expressed, there is a _simile;_ in the second, where the
comparison is only implied, there is a _metaphor._ These two figures
of speech are very common in description, and it is because they are
of great value. One other is sometimes used,--_personification,_ which
ascribes to inanimate things the attributes of life which are the
property of animate nature. What could be happier than this by
Stevenson: "All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and
freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles"? or this, "A
faint sound, more like a moving coolness than a stream of air"? And at
the end of the chapter which describes his "night under the pines," he
speaks of the "tapestries" and "the inimitable ceiling" and "the view
which I command from the windows." In this one chapter are
personification, simile, metaphor,--all comparisons, and doing what
could hardly be done without them. Common, distinct, concrete images
are surest.

Choice of Words. Adjectives and Nouns.

To body forth these common, distinct, concrete images calls for a
discriminating choice of words; for in the choice of words lies a
large part of the vividness of description. If the thing described be
unknown to the reader, it requires the right word to place it before
him; if it be common, still must the right word be found to set it
apart from the thousand other objects of the same class. The words
that may justly be called describing words are adjectives and nouns;
and of these the adjective is the first descriptive word. The rule
that a writer should never use two adjectives where one will do, and
that he should not use one if a noun can be found that completely
expresses the thought, is a good one to follow. One certain stroke of
the crayon is worth a hundred lines, each approaching the right one.
One word, the only one, will tell the truth more vividly than ten that
approach its expression. For it must be remembered that a description
must be done quickly; every word that is used