haracter, giving the time and the
setting, it was necessary for him to bring in another element of the
plot, Constance, and to go backward in time to pick up this thread of
the story. The really essential order in any narrative is the order of
cause and effect. As causes precede effects, the causal order and the
time order generally coincide. In a single series of events, that is,
where one cause alone produces an effect, which in turn becomes the
cause of another effect, the time order is the causal order. In a
novel, or a short story frequently, where there are more than one
series of incidents contributing to and converging towards the main
incident, these causes must all be introduced before the effect, and
may break the chronological order of the story. In "Roger Malvin's
Burial," it would be impossible to tell what the stricken father was
doing and what the joyous mother was thinking at the same time.
Hawthorne must leave one and go to the other until they meet in their
awful desolation. The only rule that can be given is, introduce causes
before effects. In all stories, short or long, this will result in an
approximation to the order of time; in a simple story it will
invariably give a time sequence.

There is one exception to this rule which should be noted. It is
necessary at the very beginning to have some incident that will arrest
the attention. This does not mean that persons, place, and time shall
not come first. They shall come first, but they shall be so introduced
as to make an interesting opening to the story. The novels of some
decades ago did not sufficiently recognize the principle. One can
frequently hear it said of Scott's stories, "I can't get started with
them; they are too dry." The introductory chapters are often
uninteresting. So much history is introduced, so much scenery is
described before the author sets out his characters; and all this is
done before he begins the story. Novelists of to-day realize that they
must interest the reader at the beginning; when they have caught him,
they are quite certain that he will bear with them while they bring up
the other divisions of the story, which now have become interesting
because they throw light on what has already been told. Even more than
novelists, dramatists recognize this principle. When the curtain rises
on the first act, something interesting is going on. The action
frequently begins far along in the time covered by the story; then by
cle