5. Burke: On Conciliation with the American Colonies.
6. Chatham: On Removing Troops from Boston.[53]
7. Beecher: Liverpool Speech.[53]
CHAPTER XIV
NARRATION AND DESCRIPTION
Narration, or narrative, relates a series of events. Description gives an account of the look of persons or things. Character description gives both physical and mental traits. Recall to memory various stories you have read, and say whether narratives of considerable length do or do not have to give description as they proceed.
Narration
Two Kinds.—If a series of events actually happened, they are historical, and the story of them may be called historical narrative. If they did not happen, but owe their existence to the imagination, they are fictional, and the narrative is fiction. If we are writing a story, let the fact be understood; if a sober rehearsal of facts, let it be made an exercise in the rare and difficult art of truth-telling.
Exercises in Choice of Subject.—(1) Examine a daily paper and pick out several narratives which seem to you to have a general human interest, and several that have not. (2) Write a list of twenty subjects for narrative and submit them to the class for a vote as to which are the most interesting. Choose events which you have witnessed or taken part in. (3) Write a list of what are to you the most interesting events of ancient, mediæval, and modern history.