SUBJECTIVE DESCRIPTION. 161 their own; as, perception, memory, imagination, reason. The resulting ideas may be described by a reference to their several objects; as, "the recollection of one's early years," ‚” “the imagination of a feast," "the notion of the Infinite." The matters successively thought of may be mentioned in order :—"These, however, were but the evening fancies of the mariner, who had before him fondly in his mind the wreathed pillars of the cathedral of Burgos, or the thousand-columned Christian mosque of Cordova, or the perfect fane of Seville." The predominance of these modes constitutes a subjective style, and is an extreme to be avoided. The following passage from Adam Smith comes almost wholly under the present head. The few objective references are marked in italics :— "The violator of the more sacred laws of justice, can never reflect on the sentiments which mankind must entertain with regard to him, without feeling all the agonies of shame, and horror, and consternation. When his passion is gratified, and he begins coolly to reflect on his past conduct, he can enter into none of the motives which influenced it. They appear now as detestable to him as they did always to other people. By sympathizing with the hatred and abhorrence which other men must entertain for him, he becomes, in some measure, the object of his own hatred and abhorrence. The situation of the person who suffered by his injustice, now calls upon his pity. He is grieved at the thought of it; regrets the unhappy effects of his own conduct, and feels at the same time that they have rendered him the proper object of the resentment and indignation of mankind, and of what is the natural consequence of resentment, vengeance and punishment. The thought of this perpetually haunts him, and fills him with terror and amazement. He dares no longer look society in the face, but imagines himself as it were rejected, and thrown out from the affections of all mankind. He cannot hope for the consolation of sympathy in this his greatest and most dreadful distress. The remembrance of his crimes has shut out all fellow-feeling with him from the hearts of his fellowcreatures. The sentiments which they entertain with regard to him, are the very thing which he is most afraid of. Every thing seems hostile, and he would be glad to fly to some inhospitable desert, where he might never more behold the face of a human creature, nor read in the countenance of mankind the condemnation of his crimes. But solitude is still more dreadful than society. His own thoughts can present him with nothing but what is black, un fortunate, and disastrous, the melancholy forebodings of incomprehensible misery and ruin." '14. II. The feelings may be described, or, to speak more correctly, suggested, by their various associations. And first, by their Outward Expression. The expression of the features, the varying hues of the countenance, the tones of the voice, the gesticulations of the body, are characteristic of the great leading emotions. The signs of pleasure, pain, anger, fear, wonder, tender feeling, are known and read in all times and in all countries. The description of them in language is also suggestive. Hence "the smiling countenance," ""the dark frown of anger," "the stare of wonder," help us to realize the feelings. Fear has been often pictured vividly. We need only recall Job iv. 14, and the passage in Hamlet, "I could a tale unfold—." Secondly, by their known Occasions, Causes, or Provocations. The mention of a kind or beneficent action suggests to us, by anticipation, the grateful feeling of the recipient. An impending danger makes us conceive the terror it causes. On hearing of some great provocation, we recall the emotion of anger. Thirdly, by the resulting Actions or Conduct. There is a specific line of conduct following our stronger feelings, such as to mark more especially their pleasurable or painful character. The devotion to knowledge, to art, or to sportive recreations, suggests the degree of pleasure that they severally give; intense avoidance has the contrary meaning. While feeling and thought are mental or subjective, action is material or objective, and can be so described. Such characteristics as energetic, lively, slow, taciturn, uncouth, persistent, applied to human beings, are objective features. Fourthly, by the External Scenes, Objects, and Circumstances, that are in harmony with them. DESCRIPTION IN SCIENCE. 163 We have already referred to the tendency of external nature to raise certain emotions—the sublime, the terrible, the beautiful, the tender, &c. (§ 102)—and have shown the union thus arising to be made use of in objective description (p. 159). We may employ it also in subjective description. Thus, to represent the timid man's feelings, we use the objective illustration," he saw a lion in his path." Other examples are—“In the seventh heavens;" "down in the depths;" 66 a sunny soul;" "the one with spirits as of men beating, the other with spirits as of men beaten." See also the expressions in italics, in the passage quoted on page 161. 15. Description is involved in all the other kinds of Composition. The narration of events or operations must often be a series of descriptions; as a battle, a campaign, a voyage. Kinglake's narrative of the battle of the Alma is in great part made up of descriptions. In describing machinery and processes in the arts, the main or essential part of the mechanism is to be carefully distinguished from the accessories or details. Dr. Arnott introduces his account of the steam-engine thus: -“The name steam-engine to most persons brings the idea of a machine of the most complex nature, and hence to be understood only by those who will devote much time to the study of it; but he that can understand a common pump, may understand a steam-engine. It is, in fact, only a pump in which the fluid passing through it is made to impel the piston instead of being impelled by it, that is to say, in which the fluid acts as the power instead of being the resistance." in 16. Exposition, or Science, is frequently made up a great measure of Description. The Natural Sciences, Geography, Anatomy, Zoology, Botany, &C., are examples. Geography has been already referred to. In Anatomy, there is an elaborate descriptive method. The larger organs, as the viscera, are represented by Outline, Plan and Enumeration of parts; the blood-vessels and nerves are given on the method of Main Trunk and Ramifications. In the description of the vagus nerve, the following comprehensive outline is prefaced :—"The vagus has the longest course of any of the cranial nerves. It extends through the neck and the cavity of the chest to the upper part of the abdomen; and it supplies nerves to the organs of voice and respiration, to the alimentary canal as far as the stomach, and to the heart." 17. Poetry partakes so largely of Description, that the principles now laid down are proper to be incorporated in the poetic art. The end of Poetry, which is immediate pleasure or emotional effect, determines the subjects chosen. Language being inadequate to the easy presentation of complicated scenes, the poet refrains from attempting such, and selects the simpler and more impressive objects, which a few bold touches will enable him to depict. He also dispenses with numerical exactness, and employs largely the language of associated circumstances, and, more especially, the associated feelings. Milton's description of the scene from the Mount of Temptation fairly represents the degree of complication that a poet may undertake :— "It was a mountain at whose verdant feet A spacious plain, outstretched in circuit wide, Then meeting join'd their tribute to the sea; With herds the pastures throng'd, with flocks the hills; The laws of description are well observed in this passage; and, without a laborious effort, the whole scene may be conceived and its beauties enjoyed. The following is one of Wordsworth's most complicated descriptions :— DESCRIPTION IN POETRY. "A point that show'd the valley, stretched 165 Usually, however, the practice of poets is to give mere snatches of views, and to overlay them with figures of similitude, associated particulars, and the language of feeling. Scott's description, in Marmion, of the prospect towards Edinburgh, from the top of Blackford, is a series of poetic touches: "When sated with the martial show With gloomy splendor red; For, on the smoke-wreaths, huge and slow, The morning beams were shed, And tinged them with a lustre proud, But northward far, with purer blaze, Yonder the shores of Fife you saw; Like emeralds chased in gold. The delineation of character is sometimes called Description. But in so far as this consists in summing up the conduct of an individual, or of a nation, or in depicting any other object, in |