—­Hotels in Scotland ("Kansas City Star").

+Theme XXXVII.+—­Write a general description of one of the following:—­

1.  A bicycle. 2.  A country hay barn. 3.  A dog. 4.  A summer cottage. 5.  An Indian wigwam. 6.  A Dutch windmill. 7.  A muskrat’s house. 8.  A robin’s nest. 9.  A blacksmith’s shop. 10.  A chipmunk. 11.  A threshing machine. 12.  A sewing circle.

(The purpose is not to picture a particular object, but to give a general notion of a class of objects.  Cross out everything in your theme that applies only to some particular object.  Have you included enough to make your meaning clear?)

+Theme XXXVIII.+—­Using the same title as for Theme XXXVII, write a specific description of some particular object.

(How does it differ from the general description?  What elements have you introduced which you did not have in the other?  Which sentence gives the general outline?  Are your details arranged with regard to their proper position in space?  Will the reader form a vivid picture—­just the one you mean him to have?)

+68.  General Narration.+—­Explanations of a process of manufacture, methods of playing a game, and the like, often take the form of generalized narration.  Just as we gain a notion of the appearance of a sod house from a general description, so may we gain a notion of a series of events from a general narration.  Such a narration will not tell what some one actually did, but will relate the things that are characteristic of the process or action under discussion whenever it happens.  Such general narration is really exposition.

EXERCISES

A. Notice that the selection below is a generalized narration, showing what a hare does when hunted.  In it no incident peculiar to some special occasion is introduced.

She [the hare] generally returns to the beat from which she was put up, running, as all the worlds knows, in a circle, or sometimes something like it, we had better say, that we may keep on good terms with the mathematical.  At starting, she tears away at her utmost speed for a mile or more, and distances the dogs halfway; she then turns, diverging a little to the right or left, that she may not run into the mouths of her enemies—­a necessity which accounts for what we call the circularity of her course.  Her flight from home is direct and precipitate; but on her way back, when she has gained a little time for consideration and stratagem, she describes a curious labyrinth of short turnings and windings as if to perplex the dogs by the intricacy of her track.

—­Richard Atton.

B.  The selection below narrates an actual hunt.  Notice in what respects it differs from the preceding selection.

Sir Roger is so keen at this sport that he has been out almost every day since I came down; and upon the chaplain’s offering to lend me his easy pad, I was prevailed on yesterday morning to make one of the company.  I was extremely pleased, as we rid along, to observe the general benevolence of all the neighborhood towards my friend.  The farmers’ sons thought themselves happy if they could open a gate for the good old knight as he passed by; which he generally requited with a nod or a smile, and a kind inquiry after their fathers and uncles.