We frequently try to write so that another person shall see just what we see, but in many instances the wiser course is to make the reader feel as we feel. Thomas Bailey Aldrich says: "I like to have a thing suggested rather than told in full. When every detail is given, the mind rests satisfied, and the imagination loses all desire to use its own wings." Sometimes a word or a phrase is more suggestive than a page of details. You will find the following worth study:

1. The smiler, with the knife under the cloak.1

2. Next stood Hypocrisy with holy leer, Soft smiling and demurely looking down, But hid the dagger underneath the gown.

3. Look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under't.

165. Description By Effect

Sometimes the best way to describe a thing is to suggest how it influences the spectator or actor. This kind of suggestion is called description by effect.

Exercises

532. See in how many effective ways you can bring out the thought of the following:

1. Mutiny, it was plain, hung over us like a thundercloud.

2. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile.

538. Describe by means of suggestion one of the following: (1) an elm tree; (2) a sweet child; (3) a fog; (4) a storm cloud.

534. Read the following paragraph aloud until you can read it well. Is it an example of description by effect ? How did Nehushta feel in the atmosphere described?

The peace of the evening descended upon her [Nehushta]; the birds of the day ceased singing with the growing darkness; and slowly, out of the plain, the yellow moon soared up and touched the river and the meadows with mystic light; while far off, in the rose thickets of the gardens, the first notes of a single nightingale floated upon the scented breeze, swelling and trilling, quivering and falling again, in a glory of angelic song. The faint air fanned her cheek, the odors of the box and the myrtle and the roses intoxicated her senses, and as the splendid shield of the rising moon cast its broad light into her dreaming eyes, her heart overflowed, and Nehushta the princess lifted up her voice and sang an ancient song of love, in the tongue of her people, to a soft minor melody, that sounded like a sigh from the southern desert. - F. M. Crawford, "Zoroaster," chap. ii.

1 "This verse," says Lowell, "makes us glance over our shoulders, as if we heard a stealthy tread behind us".

585. Write a description of some peaceful scene in such a way that the reader will feel calm.

586. Describe some exciting scene in such a way that you will excite your listeners. Draw freely on your imagination.

587. Write a description of a happy scene in such a way that the reader cannot help feeling pleased.

588. Write a letter to some one, giving a vivid account of some fine bit of music that you have heard.

589. Select from an English classic some good description of a place or scene. Read the passage to the class, calling attention to what you consider particularly good.

540. Without actually naming it, be prepared to describe some simple object so that the class will understand what you have in mind. The following may suggest a subject: ruler, armchair, ink bottle, fountain pen, pocketknife, carriage.

541. In a similar way be prepared to describe some familiar building in your neighborhood, or some well-known public character, or a famous painting.

542. Write a description of a tree that you know well.

543. (1) Describe a picture of a house and grounds. (2) Add details that in your judgment would improve it, and describe the resulting picture.

544. Similarly (1) describe a picture of a landscape, or a body of water, and (2) add such details as you choose, and describe the resulting picture.

545. Describe an unattractive back yard (1) as it is, and (2) as, at slight expense, it might be.

64.6. Is the following description of Caesar a vivid picture? Make a plan of it, noting (1) the point of view and (2) the choice of details.

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In person Caesar was tall and slight. His features were more refined than was usual in Roman faces; the forehead was wide and high, the nose large and thin, the lips full, the eyes dark gray like an eagle's, the neck extremely thick and sinewy. His complexion was pale. His beard and mustache were kept carefully shaved. His hair was short and naturally scanty, falling off towards the end of his life and leaving him partially bald. His voice, especially when he spoke in public, was high and shrill. ... He was an athlete in early life, admirable in all manly exercise, and especially in riding. - J. A. Froude, "Caesar."

547. Write a description of a young man, profiting by what you can learn from the foregoing selection and from the paragraph quoted on page 289.

548. Write a description of an elderly man, profiting by any suggestions you may get from the following:

1. He must have been upwards of sixty, but he had a wiry, well-trained, elastic figure, a stiff, military throw-back of his head, and a springing step, which made him appear much younger than he was.

2. In a city in which people regarded the beautiful body as a sign of the beautiful soul within, in which they looked upon an ugly man much as they would upon an anarchist, Socrates was the "ugliest of the sons of men." With his enormously large bald head, protruding eyes, flat nose, and thick lips, he resembled the satyr masks displayed in the shop windows at Athens; big-bodied and bandy-legged, he stalked like a pelican through the streets.

- Botsford, "History of Greece," p. 225.

549. Write a description of an imaginary young woman. The following sketch of Joan of Arc may be helpful:

The girl was in her eighteenth year, tall, finely formed, with all the vigor and activity of her peasant rearing, able to stay from dawn to nightfall on horseback without meat or drink. As she mounted her charger, clad in white armor from head to foot, with the great white banner studded with fleur-de-lis over her head, she seemed "a thing wholly divine, whether to see or hear."

- Green, "History of the English People."

550, Write a description of a mammy to correspond to the character sketch (exposition) in Exercise 601, or a description of an Indian suggested by that of Mahto-Tatonka on page 289.