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11. When the main object is to inform, the subject of information either refers to animate or inanimate objects; and again the animate objects are either rational or irrational. If the subject of information be inanimate objects, the species of composition is called a Description. If the subject of information be animate objects, whether rational or irrational, and either certain or probable, the composition is called a Narration. When the subject relates to animate objects, and is either improbable or very doubtful, the species of composition is termed a Fable.

12. When the main object is to please, the species of composition is generally either a Poem or Novel, Romance, Drama, or a Graphic Description; all which are comprised under the species of either narrations or descriptions.

13. When the principal object is to persuade,

(11.) When the object of a writer is to inform, to what may the subject of composition refer?

If the subject of information refer to inanimate objects, how is the species of composition called?

If the subject of information refer to animate objects, how is it named?

When is the species of composition termed a fable?

(12.) What are the species of composition, when the object of a writer is to please?

(13.) What is the kind of composition when the object is to persuade?

the species of composition is generally styled an Oration or Dissertation.

14. When the object is complex-that is, when it comprises information, persuasion or pleasure, the species of composition generally is a Letter, or an Essay.

15. To resume; the species of composition. may be reduced chiefly to six, namely: Fables, Narrations, Descriptions, Letters, Essays and Ora

tions.

16. In this book we shall treat of five species of composition only, viz: Fables, Narrations, Descriptions, Letters and Essays, including some of their subordinate branches in modern use, as History, Journalism, Biography, Novel, Romance and Drama. The study of all these constitutes the department of Belles-Lettres, or polite literature, called also Humanities.

17. The fifth species of composition, viz: Orations, on account of its amplitude, constitutes

(14.) What, when the object comprises information, persuasion or pleasure?

(15.) Recapitulate briefly the principal species of composition.

(16.) What constitutes the study of Belles-Lettres?

(17.) What department of study do orations constitute?-and

why?

a separate department of study called Oratory, or Rhetoric. Hence, we have set that apart in the third book.

18. Each species of composition may belong to a triple order, high, middle and low, according to the nature of the subject of which it treats.

19. Before entering into the exposition of the principal species of composition, and considering their nature and requisites, it is necessary to speak of composition in general-of its synthesis, analysis, and general praxis, also, it is necessary to treat of style, in order that, its different kinds being known, it may be suitably adapted to each species and subject of composition. We shall, therefore, divide the whole subject of Belles-Lettres into seven parts. In the first, we shall treat of the Synthesis, Analysis and General Praxis of composition. In the second, we shall treat of Style; in the third, of the Fable; in the fourth, of Narrations; in the fifth, of Descriptions; in the sixth, of Letters; and in the seventh, of Essays.

(18.) To what order may a species of composition belong?

PART I.

OF THE SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS OF A LITERARY COMPOSITION, AND ITS GENERAL PRAXIS.

We shall divide this subject into two articles. In the first we shall consider the Synthesis and Analysis, and in the second the General Praxis of composition.

ARTICLE I.

SYNTHESIS AND ANALYSIS OF A LITERARY COMPOSITION THEIR NATURE AND RULES.

1. As it has already been stated, under No. 2, of the preliminary remarks, synthesis of a literary composition is the combination of several periods, which constitutes the fourth and last formation of a literary production.

2. As in the preceding, so in this formation, various requisites are to be observed. It is necessary, first, to have several elements, which

(1.) What is synthesis of a literary composition?

(2.) Is there anything requisite for the synthesis of a literary composition?

What is the first ?-second ?-third?-fourth requisite ?

here are periods. Their number should be rather large than small; otherwise, it will scarcely deserve the name of a literary composition. Second, the connection of the periods must be made by the sense, rather than by conjunctive particles. Hence, it is necessary, in making the skeleton of the composition, (of which we shall speak in the praxis) to observe closely if the main ideas or points are logically connected, before proceeding to their development and amplification. Third, although the whole work of synthesis must show symmetry, yet it must not be destitute of a pleasing variety in the arrangement and government of each period. The complex of the periods must resemble a well ordered commonwealth, which, although it results from the union of different states or communities under one general government, yet each state or community has, or may have, an independent and sometimes different form of administration. Fourth, gradation, or the rising of the argument, must be observed in a literary composition, as often as the subject allows it. This consists in the gradual ascension, step by step, until the subject reaches the highest point; also in the perfection of the finale, which should be like the finishing touch of a picture, whereby the work is completed and the critic made satisfied. A

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