n and heard is
easier for a beginner to construct than an essay which deals with
ideas invisible and unheard. Whether narration or description should
precede appears yet to be undetermined; for many text-books treat one
first, and perhaps as many the other. I have thought it wiser to begin
with the short story, because it is easier to gain free, spontaneous
expression with narration than with description. To write a whole page
of description is a task for a master, and very few attempt it; but
for the uninitiated amateur about three sentences of description mark
the limit of his ability to see and describe. To get started, to gain
confidence in one's ability to say something, to acquire freedom and
spontaneity of expression,--this is the first step in the practice of
composition. Afterward, when the pupil has discovered that he really
has something to say,--enough indeed to cover three or four pages of
his tablet paper,--then it may be time to begin the study of
description, and to acquire more careful and accurate forms of
expression. Spontaneity should be acquired first,--crude and unformed
it may be, but spontaneity first; and this spontaneity is best gained
while studying narration.

There can be but little question about the order of the other forms.
Description, still dealing with the concrete, offers an admirable
opportunity for shaping and forming the spontaneous expression gained
in narration. Following description, in order of difficulty, come
exposition and argument.

I should be quite misunderstood, did any one gather from this that
during the time in which wholes are being studied, no attention is to
be given to parts; that is, to paragraphs, sentences, and words. All
things cannot be learned at once and thoroughly; there must be some
order of succession. In the beginning the primary object to be aimed
at is the construction of wholes; yet during their construction, parts
can also be incidentally studied. During this time many errors which
annoy and exasperate must be passed over with but a word, in order
that the weight of the criticism may be concentrated on the point then
under consideration. As a pupil advances, he is more and more
competent to appreciate and to form good paragraphs and well-turned
sentences, and to single out from the multitude of verbal signs the
word that exactly presents his thought. The appreciation and the use
of the stronger as well as the finer and more delicate forms of
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