Write about an actual visit or interview. In all your work pay most attention to presenting the spirit of the person whom you talk with. The events of your visit, and the remarks that are made, are of less importance than the things that reveal spirit,—the surroundings, the costume, the habits, the work done and the various things that show character. The essay is in no sense to be the story of a visit; it is to give an intimate picture of the person in whom you are interested. Your object is to show character.
FOOTNOTES:
[30] Jean Henri Fabre (1823-1915). A French entomologist who wrote many volumes on insect life, among them being The Life and Love of the Insects; The Life of the Spider; The Life of the Fly.
[31] Walt Whitman (1819-1892). An American poet, noted for highly original poems marked by absence of rhyme and metre. Whitman loved the outdoor world, and had great philosophic insight.
[32] Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881). A brilliant English essayist and historian, strikingly original and unconventional, and a firm upholder of stalwart manhood.
[33] Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910). A great Russian novelist, reformer and philosopher,—a bold and original thinker.
[34] Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919). Ranchman, author, soldier, explorer, and President of the United States, a man of sterling manhood and great personal fearlessness.
[35] Mona Lisa. A picture of a lady of Florence, painted about 1504 by Leonardo da Vinci, an Italian painter. The face has a peculiarly tantalizing expression.
[36] Wake Robin. One of John Burroughs' delightful outdoor books, written in 1870.
[37] William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878). The first great American poet; author of Thanatopsis; noted for his love of nature.