* * * * *
From his "Essays."
=_222._= The Philosophy of Composition.
There is a radical error, I think, in the usual mode of constructing
a story. Either history affords a thesis--or one is suggested by an
incident of the day--or, at best, the author sets himself to work in
the combination of striking events to form merely the basis of his
narrative--designing, generally, to fill in with description, dialogue,
or autorial comment, whatever crevices of fact, or action, may, from
page to page, render themselves apparent.
I prefer commencing with the consideration of an _effect_, keeping
originality _always_ in view--for he is false to himself who ventures to
dispense with so obvious and so easily attainable a source of interest.
I say to myself, in the first place, "Of the innumerable effects, or
impressions, of which the heart, the intellect, or (more generally)
the soul, is susceptible, what one shall I, on the present occasion,
select?" Having chosen a novel, first, and secondly a vivid, effect, I
consider whether it can be best wrought by incident or tone, whether by
ordinary incidents and peculiar tone, or the converse, or by peculiarity
both of incident and tone--afterward looking about me (or rather within)
for such combinations of event, or tone, as shall best aid me in the
construction of the effect.
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