Those who use a camera know that it is important to choose an advantageous spot from which to take the picture. They know that when once the camera is placed, its position must not be changed during the exposure; for any shifting results in overlapping and confusion in the picture. The photographer may, of course, make a series of exposures from different points of view at different angles if he chooses, or at closer and closer range. Taken from a remote point, the object will show only dim general outlines in the picture; taken at closer range, it will show clearly many details that cannot be distinguished in the first picture. One who is making observations with a view to description is much like the photographer. He will choose an advantageous point from which to view the object to be described, and will tell only what can be seen from that point.

He will not commit the absurdity of describing the back of a church while he and his reader stand at the front. He will take his reader with him around the church, where they can both see the back of it. If afterward he wishes to describe the interior of the church, he will invite his reader to go in with him. If the object to be described is distant, he will not speak of it as if it were close at hand. He will not put in details that he cannot see from his point of view, even though he knows they are there; but after describing the impression made by the object as seen from a distance, he will take his reader to a closer point, from which the details that he wishes to mention can be readily seen by both.

In some cases it will be necessary to adopt the

traveller's point of view, that is, to change the point of view several times, in order to give attention to a series of objects one after the other. The story-writer was at fault who, writing a description of a building from a viewpoint across an open public square, quoted an inscription that was cut in the side wall of the vestibule, as if the inscription could be read at that distance. is always proper to change the point of view, in order that the details that need mention may be seen, but the reader

It

must be made aware of every change. Evidently it is necessary, if we would avoid faults in writing description, to imitate the photographer by making an actual observation of the thing to be described, choosing our point of view so as to justify the introduction of such details as we wish our reader to see.

58.

Assignments on Point of View.

A. In the following selection, what is probably the point of view at the outset? Is the point of view changed? What indicates the change? Is anything mentioned that could not be seen?

I had now come in sight of the house. It is a large building of brick, with stone quoins, and is in the Gothic style of Queen Elizabeth's day, having been built in the first year of her reign. The exterior remains very nearly in its original state, and may be considered a fair specimen of the residence of a wealthy country gentleman of those days. A great gateway opens from the park into a kind of courtyard in front of the house, ornamented with a grassplot, shrubs, and flower-beds. The gateway is in imitation. of the ancient barbican; being a kind of outpost, and flanked by towers, though evidently for mere ornament, instead of defence. The front of the house is completely in the old style; with stone-shafted casements, a great bow-window of

heavy stone work, and a portal with armorial bearings over it, carved in stone. At each corner of the building is an octagon tower, surmounted by a gilt ball and weathercock.

B. In the following, note the words by which we are made aware of the point of view.

1. The point of view from which I first saw the valley, was not altogether, although it was nearly, the best point from which to survey the house. I will therefore describe it as I afterwards saw it — from a position on the stone wall at the southern extreme of the amphitheatre.

The main building was about twenty-four feet long and sixteen broad certainly not more. Its total height, from the ground to the apex of the roof, could not have exceeded eighteen feet. To the west end of this structure was attached one about a third smaller in all its proportions the line of its front standing back about two yards from that of the larger house; and the line of its roof, of course, being considerably depressed below that of the roof adjoining. At right angles to these buildings, and from the rear of the main one - not exactly in the middle- extended a third compartment, very small-being, in general, one-third less than the western wing. The roofs of the two larger were very steep-sweeping down from the ridge-beam with a long concave curve, and extending at least four feet beyond the walls in front, so as to form the roofs of two piazzas. These latter roofs, of course, needed no support; but as they had the air of needing it, slight and perfectly plain pillars were inserted at the corners alone. The roof of the northern wing was merely an extension of a portion of the main roof. Between the chief building and western wing arose a very tall and rather slender square chimney of hard Dutch bricks, alternately black and red-a slight cornice of projecting bricks at the top. -POE: Landor's Cottage.

2. Please leave the little chapel for the moment, and walk down the nave, till you come to two sepulchral slabs near the west end, and then look about you and see what sort of a church Santa Croce is. RUSKIN: Modern Painters.

3. By this time they had come to the end of the street. Here they stopped in their walk and looked about them. Far off to the left, etc.

4. The baron gazed with a sad eye into the distance at the vast Norman landscape, undulating and melancholy, like an immense English park, where the farmyards, surrounded by two or four rows of trees and full of dwarfed apple-trees which hid the houses, gave a vista as far as the eye could see of forest trees, copses and shrubbery such as landscape gardeners look for in laying out the boundaries of princely estates. - MAUPASSANT: The Farmer's Wife.

C. By actual observation determine what is the best point from which to view (1) the interior of a certain church, (2) a busy store, (3) an entire village, (4) a winding stream, (5) an old mill, (6) a long avenue, (7) an old orchard, (8) a commencement audience, (9) a railway station on the arrival of a train.

D. Suppose that you wanted to describe a picture gallery, and to include brief descriptions of some of the best pictures in it. What substitute for a fixed point of view would you adopt?

E. Suppose that you wished to make a description of a moving circus procession. What would be your best position?

F. Set down from memory in a list the things that you would mention in a description of the exterior of your own home. From what fixed point of view can they all be seen? Try that point of view yourself. Then revise your list.

G. Suppose that you wished to describe two very unlike people by a running contrast. What device would you employ in order to secure an advantageous point of view of both?

The Order of Observation.

59. There is a story of a German professor who, getting into an omnibus after a hard day's work, and seeing his face reflected in the mirror at the front, but not recognizing it as his own, exclaimed mentally, "There's some worn-out old pedagogue!" He recognized the type before he recognized the individual. His first look reported the class, "worn-out old pedagogue," and only after looking longer, a second or a third time, did he discover the individual traits that enabled him to identify the image as that of a particular "worn-out old pedagogue" himself. Each of us has had a similar experience when meeting some old friend whom we did not immediately “place or recognize. The first look reported to us only "one of my old friends"; it required further observations to mark the traits which identified the particular friend. Examples might be multiplied. Entering a grove, we come upon several groups of people disposed in various ways and engaged in various employments. The first look reports "a picnic party"; a second, third, or fourth look will be required to enable us to tell what each group is about. On a noisy street we may see a crowd about a man who is mounted on a box and speaking earnestly. look may report nothing more than this. look shows us that he holds a bottle in his we at once register "patent medicine man." second look shows us that he holds a leather-covered book and wears a military cap, we as readily make the mental note, "Salvation Army."

Our first

A second

hand, and

Or, if the

The oftener we look, or (what is the same thing) the