DIRECTIONS FOR WRITING
When you have selected a subject that interests you, write out, in a single sentence, your one most important thought on that subject. Then plan to write an essay that will embody that thought.
If you are to imitate Mr. Towne's method you will think of a typical character who will express your own thought. As soon as you have introduced your character—notice how quickly Mr. Towne introduced the “young-old philosopher”—lead him to relate an experience that made him think about the subject. Write his meditations in such a way that they will show all view-points. Let the end of your essay indicate, rather than state, the view-point that you wish to emphasize.
Mr. Towne gives his essay many elements of originality and much beauty of thought and expression. Imitate his style as well as you can.
FOOTNOTES:
[55] Sir Walter Raleigh is said to have laid his cloak in the mud so that Queen Elizabeth might pass without soiling her garments.
[56] Narcissus. A Greek myth tells of a young man named Narcissus who, leaning over a pool, fell in love with his own reflection, and changed into a flower.
[57] Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1828-1882). An English poet of Italian and English descent. His poems are marked by beauty of form, symbolism and color.
[58] Innesfree. The Irish poet, William Butler Yeats (1864—) wrote The Lake Isle of Innisfree in which he imagines Innisfree as an island of perfect peace, a place for which he longs when “on the roadway, or on the pavements gray.”
THE STORY OF ADVENTURE