known or seen. The extent, or range, therefore, of our imagination may be said to depend upon our stock of knowledge. We have five gates, or ports, of knowledge.

The first process, the first thing to be done, then, in the making of a composition, is to let our imagination do its work. All we have to do, is to concentrate our minds on the subject. Imagination will do the rest; but, the result of its working will depend upon the amount of knowledge which we have previously acquired. So that the measure of success in composition depends, first of all, upon the measure of our alertness and industry in other affairs. In other words, composition is a test of character.

II. Selection. Selection is the process of selecting, or choosing, out of the numerous facts, ideas, sentiments and circumstances which Imagination presents to us for our use in treating the subject, only those that are strictly appropriate to the particular kind of composition we have in hand. Imagination, having completed its task, and provided us with material, we send it to rest, and set another quality to work— Judgment. Judgment has to select, or sort out, from the mass of material provided by Imagination, those things which it wants, firmly rejecting all else, however attractive it may be.

For Invention, then, we set in motion the faculty of Imagination. For Selection, the faculty of Judg

ment.

III. Disposition. The noun Disposition is derived

from the verb to dispose, which means to set in proper places, to set in order, to arrange. Disposition, then, is the process of setting in their right order the materials already selected for the composition. Invention and Selection having done their work, we assume that the composition is, by this time, actually written. The next thing to do is to see that the different parts of the composition are arranged in that order which most clearly expresses what we have to say. To the rules which help us to find that order we shall come presently.

To the faculties, then, of Imagination, for Invention, and of Judgment, for Selection, we add the faculty of Method, for Disposition.

IV. Diction. The word Diction means the style, or kind, of language; the wording of a composition.

Having invented all the material we could possibly use in our composition, selected what material we require, and arranged it in the right order, we have now to attend to the Diction, the actual words we have used. We have to find those words which exactly convey our exact meaning. And, in each case, out of a number of words meaning nearly, but not quite, the same thing, we are to remember that there is never more than one word which can exactly convey our exact meaning. The power of arriving at the right Diction largely depends upon Taste; and Taste is formed by the careful study of the best examples in literature.

Thus, to the faculties set

in motion to produce a composition, Imagination,

Judgment, Method, we add the one that gives to the others all their value-Taste.

To sum up: The Four Essential Factors of Composition are; First, what you might say. Second, what you will say. Third, in what order you will say it. Fourth, how you will say it.

The pupil should be induced to resolve the four following examples for himself into the Four Essential Factors, and concisely to express the result.

MORTE D'ARTHUR.

Sir Thomas Malory.

BOOK I. CHAPTER XI.

Of a dream of the king with the hundred knights.

So by Merlin's advice there were sent fore-riders to skim the country, and they met with the fore-riders of the north, and made them to tell which way the host came, and then they told it to Arthur, and by king Ban and Bor's counsel they let burn and destroy all the country afore them where they should ride.

The king with the hundred knights dreamed a wonder dream two nights afore the battle, that there blew a great wind, and blew down their castles and their towns, and after that came a water and bare it all away. All that heard of the dream said it was a token of great battle. Then, by counsel of Merlin, when they wist which way the eleven kings would ride and lodge that night, at midnight they set upon them, as they were in their pavilions. But the scout-watch by their host cried, Lords! at arms! for here be your enemies at your hand!

EXAMPLE 5

EXAMPLE 5. THE FOUR ESSENTIAL FACTORS.

THE DREAM OF THE KING WITH THE HUNDRED
KNIGHTS.

Invention. Two great contending armies are advancing towards each other. The two divisions of King Arthur's army send out scouts; and after their report, the country in front of the opposing army is laid waste. Then one of King Arthur's allies, the King with the Hundred Knights, dreams a marvellous dream of a tempest, that is taken as an omen. And, encouraged by that omen, King Arthur's army falls upon the vanguard of his enemies.

Selection. Out of the thousand incidents that befall in war-time, the author (to suit the main purpose of his story) selects the incidents of scouting, and of laying waste the country before the enemy, to deprive them of sustenance. And out of the thousand happenings in a mixed camp of kings great and little, knights and men-at-arms, on the eve of a disastrous battle, the author (still mindful of the main purpose of his story) chooses the dream of the King with the Hundred Knights for relation.

Disposition. The scouting and laying waste is related before the dream, thus bringing affairs very near the catastrophe, which the dream precipitates.

Diction. The diction is the brief, abrupt, picturesque diction of the fifteenth century. The pictures are presented as vividly and in as few words as possible. A military manœuvre, which must have occupied

several days, is related in a sentence. The dream

wind, and blew down their castles and their towns, and after that there came a water and bare it all away.' In two lightning glimpses, we are shown a whole vast landscape of tempest and flood. Note the relative positions of the words, and the emphatic, musical rhythm resulting from their arrangement.

AN OLD MAN'S MISADVENTURE.

Thomas Harman. (1567.)

I HAD of late years an old man to my tenant, who customably a great time went twice in the week to London, either with fruit or with peascods, when time served therefor. And as he was coming homeward on Blackheath, at the end thereof next to Shooters' Hill, he overtook two rufflers, the one mannerly waiting on the other, as one had been the master, and the other the man or servant, carrying his master's cloak. This old man was very glad that he might have their company over the Hill, because that day he had made a good market; for he had seven shillings in his purse, and an old angel, which this poor man had thought had not been in his purse, for he willed his wife over night to take out the same angel, and lay it up until his coming home again. And he verily thought that his wife had so done, which indeed forgot to do it. Thus after salutations had, this master ruffler entered into communication with this simple old man, who, riding softly beside them, communed of many matters. Thus feeding this old man with pleasant talk, until they were

1 Part foot-pad, part cheat, part beggar.

B

EXAMPLE 6