STUDIES

IN

ENGLISH LITERATURE.

DEFINITIONS.

I.

LITERATURE AND ITS DEPARTMENTS.

1. Literature (Lat. literatura, from litera, a letter), in its most general import, is the collective body of literary productions preserved in writing; but, in its specific sense, it includes only those writings that come within the sphere of rhetoric, or the literary art.

I. The definition excludes from the category of literature all
books that are technical or special in their scope-hence all
works of mere science or erudition,-so that, varying the form
of statement, we may say that the literature of any nation is
its body of "volumes paramount," dealing with subjects of
common interest and clothed in the form of literary art.
II. The French term belles-lettres (literally elegant letters, "po-
lite literature") is sometimes used as synonymous with liter-
ature in its stricter sense.

2. Classification by Form.-As regards the form of expression, literary productions are divided into two classesprose and verse (poetry).

3. Prose,' in its mechanism, is that species of composition in which words are arranged in unversified or nonmetrical sentences. It is the ordinary form of oral or written discourse.

4. Verse, or poetry, in its mechanism, is that species of composition in which words are metrically arranged; that is, arranged in lines (verses) containing a definite number and succession of accented and unaccented syllables.

It must be understood that the definitions given above have regard merely to the outer form, or mechanism, of the two species of written composition. And this should the more clearly be borne in mind because there is great latitude, and thereby the possibility of great ambiguity, in the use of the words poetry, verse, rhyme, prose, etc. Thus "poetry" is sometimes narrowed to an equivalence with verse, or metrical composition; "verse" is sometimes extended to an equivalence with poetry; and "rhyme" is sometimes used as a synonym of poetry and as the antithesis of prose: thus

"Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme."-MILTON. On the other hand, "prose" is often used to denote what is dull and commonplace, without regard to whether the composition is metrical or non-metrical.

5. Classification by Matter.-As regards matter, or essential nature, literary productions are divided into various classes, according as the end aimed at is (1) to inform the understanding, (2) to influence the will, or (3) to excite pleasurable feelings. The principal departments of liter

ature are:

1. Description, narration, and exposition, which have for their object to inform the understanding.

2. Oratory, or persuasion, which has for its object to influence the will.

3. Poetry, which has for its most characteristic function to excite pleasurable feelings.

1 Lat. prosa, equivalent to Lat. prorsa (oratio understood), from prorsus, straightforward, straight on.

Lat. versus, a furrow, a row (from vertere, to turn); hence a metrical line, and, by an extension of meaning, metrical composition.

6. Description, or descriptive writing, is that kind of composition in which an object of some degree of complexity is represented in language.

I. Description is generally divided into two kinds:

a. Objective description - referring to objects perceptible to the senses.

b. Subjective description-referring to the feelings and the thoughts of the mind..

Scott and Byron afford striking examples of the two kinds of description. These two men of genius belonged to the same school of literature and wrote on kindred themes; but Scott is objective, Byron subjective. "Scott detailed all his scenes down to the minutest point, and was content with the object itself, without seeking to go very far beneath the surface. Byron, on the other hand, loved to seize the striking features in his scenes, and, after mentioning these in a bold and graphic manner, to dwell upon their hidden meaning. The battle-scene in Marmion may be compared with that of Waterloo in Childe Harold. The former is full of action - the strife of men, their suffering, their wild excitement or wilder despair; the latter is full of the poet's thoughts, and is profoundly meditative." (De Mille: Rhetoric.)

The two kinds of description, however, are generally found existing together, the subjective intermingling with the objective.

II. Description is involved in nearly all the other kinds of composition in narration, which must often be a series of descriptions; in exposition, or science, which has frequently to proceed upon description; and in poetry, which partakes so largely of description that descriptive poetry is recognized as a distinctive species of poetical composition.

7. Narration, or narrative writing, is that kind of composition which sets forth the particulars of a series of transactions or events.

I. Like description, narration may be divided into objective
and subjective, the former including all recital of external
events, the latter dealing with mental processes and the prog-
ress of events in connection with their philosophy.
II. Narration includes within itself more departments of litera-
ture than any other kind of composition. Thus objective
narration appears (a) in ordinary external history and bi-