The elements of dramatic instinct are best found and developed apart from stage representation. Students should arrange and dramatize scenes from stories, and give them as dialogues, but nearly always without "make-up" or scenery. These must only be used after the dramatic intuitions have been awakened, or an amateurish trust in mere business" is acquired. Besides, some of the most dramatic passages in literature are incapable of stage representation. How dramatic is the following passage, and what a fine dialogue students can arrange from it,—leaving the coach and the situation wholly to the imagination; but to represent it on the stage, all reference as to the coach would have to be omitted. PETER POUNCE AND THE PARSON. PETER POUNCE, being desirous of having some one to whom he might communicate his grandeur, told the parson he would convey him home in his chariot. This favor was, by Adams, with many bows and acknowledgments, accepted, though he afterward said he ascended the chariot rather that he might not offend than from any desire of riding in it, for that in his heart he preferred the pedestrian even to the vehicular expedition. The chariot had not proceeded far, before Mr. Adams observed it was a very fine day. 'Ay, and a very fine country, too," answered Pounce. 66 "I should think so more," returned Adams, "if I had not lately travelled over the Downs, which I take to exceed this, and all other 66 prospects in the universe." "A fig for prospects," answered Pounce; one acre here is worth ten there for my part, I have no delight in the prospect of any land but my own." "Then," said Adams, "you can indulge yourself in many fine prospects of that kind." "I thank God I have a little,” replied the other, "with which I am content, and envy no man. I have a little, Mr. Adams, with which I do as much good as I can." Adams answered "that riches, without charity, were nothing worth; for that they were a blessing only to him who made them a blessing to others." “You and I,” said Peter, "have different notions of charity. I own, as it is generally used, I do not like the word, nor do I think it becomes one of us gentlemen; it is a mean, parson-like quality; though I would not infer that many parsons have it neither." “Sir,” said Adams, "my definition of charity is, a generous disposition to relieve the distressed." "There is something in that definition,” answered Peter, "which I like well enough; it is, as you say, a disposi tion and does not so much consist in the act as in the disposition to do it but, alas! Mr. Adams, who are meant by the distressed? believe me, the distresses of mankind are mostly imaginary, and it would be rather folly than goodness to relieve them." "Sure, sir,” replied Adams, "hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, and other distresses which attend the poor, can never be said to be imaginary evils." "How can any man complain of hunger," said Pounce, "in a country where such excellent salads are to be gathered in almost every field? —or of thirst, where every stream and river produce such delicious potations? - and as for cold and nakedness, they are evils introduced by luxury and custom. A man naturally wants clothes no more than a horse or any other animal; and there are whole nations who go without them. But these are things, perhaps, which you, who do not know the world "the "You will pardon me, sir," returned Adams; "I have read of the Gymnosophists." "A plague of your Jehosophats," cried Peter; greatest fault in our constitution is the provision made for the poor, except that perhaps made for some others. Sir, I have not an estate which doth not contribute almost as much again to the poor as to the landtax; and I do assure you I expect myself to come to the parish in the end." To which Adams giving a dissenting smile, Peter thus proceeded : "I fancy, Mr. Adams, you are one of those who imagine I am a lump of money; for there are many who I fancy believe that not only my pockets, but my whole clothes are lined with bank bills; but, I assure you, you are all mistaken: I am not the man the world esteems me. If I can hold my head above water, it is all I can. I have injured myself by purchasing; I have been too liberal of my money. Indeed, I fear my heir will find my affairs in a worse situation than they are reputed to be. Ah! he will have reason to wish I had loved money more and land less. Pray, my good neighbor, where should I have that quantity of money the world is so liberal to bestow on me? Where could I possibly, without I had stole it, acquire such a treasure?” "Why, truly," said Adams, "I have been always of your opinion; I have wondered, as well as yourself, with what confidence they could report such things of you, which have to me appeared as mere impossibilities; for you know, sir, and I have often heard you say it, that your wealth is of your own acquisition; and can it be credible that in your short time you should have amassed such a heap of treasure as these people will have you are worth? Indeed, had you inherited an estate like Sir Thomas Booby, which had descended in your family through many generations, they might have had a color for their assertions." Why, what do they say I am worth?" cries Peter, with a malicious sneer. 'Sir," answered Adams, “I have heard some aver you are not worth less than twenty thousand pounds." At which Peter frowned. “ Nay, sir,” said Adanıs, "you ask me only the opinion of others; for my own part, I have always denied it, nor did I ever believe you could possibly be worth half that sum.' "However, Mr. Adams," said he, squeezing him by the hand, "I would not sell them all I am worth for double that sum; and as to what you believe, or they believe, I care not a fig. I am not poor, because you think me so, nor because you attempt to undervalue me in the country. I know the envy of mankind very well; but I thank heaven I am above them. It is true, my wealth is of my own acquisition. I have not an estate like Sir Thomas Booby, that hath descended in my family through many generations; but I know heirs of such estates, who are forced to travel about the country, like some people in torn cassocks, and might be glad to accept of a pitiful curacy, for what I know; yes, sir, as shabby fellows as yourself, whom no man of my figure, without that vice of good-nature about him, would suffer to ride in a chariot with him." Sir," said Adams, "I value not your chariot of a rush; and if I had known you had intended to affront me, I would have walked to the world's end on foot, ere I would have accepted a place in it. However, sir, I will soon rid you of that inconvenience!" And so saying, he opened the chariot door, without calling to the coachman, and leaped out into the highway, forgetting to take his hat along with him; which, however, Mr. Pounce threw after him with great violence. Henry Fielding. CONFESSIONS. WHAT is he buzzing in my ears? "now that I come to die, Do I view the world as a vale of tears?" ah, reverend sir, not I! What I viewed there once, what I view again where the physic bottles stand On the table's edge, : is a suburb lane, with a wall to my bedside hand. That lane sloped, much as the bottles do, from a house you could descry Only there was a way . ... you crept close by the side, to dodge Eyes in the house, two eyes except: they styled their house "The Lodge." What right had a lounger up their lane? but, by creeping very close, With the good wall's help, their eyes might strain and stretch themselves to Oes, Yet never catch her and me together, as she left the attic, there, By the rim of the bottle labelled “Ether,” and stole from stair to stair, And stood by the rose-wreathed gate. Alas, we loved, sir-used to meet: How sad and bad and mad it was - but then, how it was sweet! Browning XXXIV. POINT OF VIEW. WHATEVER is seen by man is perceived from some one point of view. Power to change points of view, to appreciate or to understand the attitude of other men, lies at the foundation of all appreciation of art, or even of truth. An isolated fact has little significance. It is the union of facts, the sympathetic relation of facts to the mind and heart, that gives that co-ordination of the objective with the subjective necessary to the realization of truth. A fruitful source of narrowness in character and of monotony and artificiality in expression is one-sidedness or limitation of point of view. To understand the simplest object requires that it shall be seen from different directions and in varied relations. All genuineness or truthfulness of feeling depends upon point of view, for it is chiefly this that stimulates any sympathetic response. Now Harry he had long suspected this trespass of old Goody Blake, and vowed that she should be detected, and he on her would vengeance take. And oft from his warm fire he'd go, and to the fields his road would take, and there, at night, in frost and snow, he watched to seize old Goody Blake. And once behind a rick of barley, thus looking out did Harry stand; the moon was full and shining clearly, and crisp with frost the stubble land. He hears a noise - he's all awake; again! on tiptoe down the hill he softly creeps. 'Tis Goody Blake! she's at the hedge of Harry Gill. Right glad was he when he beheld her; stick after stick did Goody pull: he stood behind a bush of elder, till she had filled her apron full. When with her load she turned about, the by-road back again to take, he started forward with a shout, and sprang upon poor Goody Blake. And fiercely by the arm he took her, and by the arm he held her fast, and fiercely by the arm he shook her, and cried, "I've caught you then at last!" Then Goody, who had nothing said, her bundle from her lap let fall; and kneeling on the sticks, she prayed to God that is the judge of all. She prayed, her withered hand uprearing, while Harry held her by the arm, "God! who art never out of hearing, O may he never more be warm!" The cold, cold moon above her head, thus on her knees did Goody pray: young Harry heard what she had said, and icy cold he turned away. Point of view can be better illustrated than defined. In the preceding passage what emotion or expression should be given to the clauses referring to the moon and the frost? Our own point of view might lead to admiration of them, but they cause an antagonistic exultation in Harry, since the one will enable him to see, and the other to hear, Goody Blake. In reading the lines, however, we might express our regret for his revengeful spirit. Again, we may identify ourselves with him as " he hears a noise," and its repetition, with his stealthy approach, his discovery that it is Goody; or we may look on and express our contempt for his action; or again we may identify ourselves with him till her name is spoken, then change our point of view and express " She is at the hedge" with regret. So the next clause "right glad," etc., may be given with his cruel delight, or with our feeling against him; or we can give this clause with his feeling, and express our own in the next. In the sentence "When with her load" etc., we may start with regret and pity for her, then give his point of view, and represent his spirit and feeling with underlying antagonism to him, then after the word "and" we may return to our own feeling of pity for her. These possible ways of rendering the passage illustrate the fact that consciously, or unconsciously, the reader adopts some point of view for each phrase, and so determines his feeling and expression. It is a definite point of view, which makes expression dramatic. The ability to vary the point of view, and the instinct to conceive the right one in any specific case, is a most important element of all forms of vocal expression. The instinct that conceives a point of view is one of the most important in the human mind. It is as important for success in life as for attainment in reading and speaking. Each must be able to see things as others see them, or he cannot come into contact with his race or be able to mould them in any way. A lack of power to vary points of view or to |