VII.

HOW IS ONE TO WRITE AN ESSAY?

T is singular that so much difficulty is made

IT

about English composition, considering that the material you have to work in is the language you have known from your cradle; and it is almost more singular that you should assert your difficulties to be increased by the fact of your never having written an essay at school in your life. Now, you have done original Latin prose composition for years; at some schools not a week passes without your having to send in a theme-that is to say, an essay on some given subject; and as the principles of composition in all languages are identical-as language is but the flesh which enfolds the same skeleton in all cases-I do not understand why you find this difficulty that you complain about so despairingly.

Now composition, as its name implies, is simply to compono; to arrange your subject in intelligible form; to marshal your troops as an army, instead

of getting them clubbed-as not a few writers doas a mob. That remarkable genius for organization which the French display equally in all departments of the government, and in arranging an émeute to overturn the government when perfectly organized, they display equally in all, and especially in their periodical literature. An article in the Revue des deux Mondes, for instance, is quite a lesson in literary organization to many of our writers; from first to last the writer never lets you lose sight of the main object of his writing; even if forced by circumstances into an occasional digression, he will be sure to keep you always in sight of the port you are steering for, and to land you safely there at last.

Now, there are three indispensable requisites for writing on any subject in any language: 1st, a fair knowledge of the resources of the language you are about to employ; this I will discuss in a future letter, assuming now that you know enough of your own language to express your ideas fluently and correctly in it 2dly, a knowledge of the subject given you for your essay: 3dly, a lucid arrangement of the ideas you have formed on your subject, which latter is technically termed composition.

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One great-perhaps the greatest-cause of failure is the absence of the second requisite. A man's innate sense or taste will, in many cases, supply a deficiency of formal knowledge of the third requisite; if a man is naturally clear-headed, he won't talk or write confusedly; but no amount of motherwit can supply ideas on subjects about which you have never thought or read, or (what is often most useful) conversed; you are like the Israelites turned out into the fields brick-making without that most important item, the straw.

Now, all the innumerable subjects that can be proposed for an essay are contained in one of two classes: they are either simple or compound. Under the first are reckoned such subjects as "the Feudal System," "Commerce," the name of a place, e.g. London, Gibraltar on such subjects you will write historically or descriptively, rather than argumentatively. In the second are placed such subjects as "Slavery, the curse of the country that maintains it," "The power of public opinion is irresistible:" these must be treated argumentatively. Now, whatever be the subject, it is clear that you can't draw water from an empty well; and if you have never discussed or read and thought about slavery, and

are suddenly set down to a desk, with however ample a provision of writing materials, you will be totally helpless and incapable of either treating it historically and generally, or investigating the causes which make it an equal curse to master and slave alike. In a word, here too, as happily everywhere, you will find that only industry and mental activity can supply you with the requisite materials; you have not yet got so far as your scaffolding; you have not yet collected your bricks and mortar, and timber and slates; and, as in actual building, industry alone must apply them. When we come to the scaffolding question, then skill and judgment are required, but as yet industry alone for collecting the materials.

These materials can be drawn only from two sources-reading and conversation: and by reading I don't mean merely the reading of booksthough, if you want to gain a full insight into any subject, you must have recourse to them—but rather reading, or, still better, if you have the opportunity, listening to good lectures on any subject that interests you; and better still, hearing a full and warm debate in the Houses of Parliament upon some question of policy: then you will hear both

sides of the question, and your judgment will be called more actively into play, as well as your attention. Spirited conversation, too, is a capital field for instruction, in which you are either a listener or a combatant; there, too, you see a question well sifted, with less formality, and therefore less mental effort than is demanded for a "debate in the House."

Supposing, then, that your materials are collected well in hand for immediate use, your next step is to set up your scaffolding-that is to say, to write out the heads of what you intend to say, all arranged exactly in the order in which you intend them to come in your composition.

But example is better than precept. I will show you how a master in composition wrote a treatise or essay on "Old Age," which the opinion of many generations has pronounced a master-piece; an essay so perfect in its composition that you never for a moment lose the thread of the argument-so clear in illustration, that each page convinces you more fully of the invincibility of the writer's position-expressed in language so choice and refined, that had his other works been lost, the charm of this alone would place its author among the first