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figurative, poetic, or imaginative language. What qualities of humor, pathos, or imagination has it?

Exercise 3. HOW TO STUDY THE AUTHOR'S PERSONALITY IN THE ESSAY

The next consideration should be the author's personality as revealed in the essay. This is reflected in the style as well as in the idea. Should you judge the author to be a person of wide learning, or rather special learning in some particular branch of study? What references and allusions most reveal his education? Which did you yourself have to look up? Can you tell from reading the essay anything about the author's station in life? What sort of people does he mingle with? In what branches of human activity has he had experience? In what is he specially interested? Does the essay give any clue to his temper or turn of mind? Is he imaginative or practical? Does he observe deeply or merely with close superficial attention? Does he like to draw general conclusions from what he sees? Is he humorous, whimsical, bitter, gentle, ironical, sympathetic, witty, enthusiastic, keen, profound, idealistic, disillusioned, sensible, restrained, emotional? What sort of picture could you draw of his character from what you read between the lines of the essay? In what ways does his personality affect his attitude toward the subject matter of his essay?

Exercise 4. HOW TO STUDY THE LIFE OF THE TIMES AS REVEALED IN THE ESSAY

Another profitable source of study in any essay is the life of the times as revealed by it. What can you learn from the Sir Roger de Coverley Papers of the politics, religion, methods of travel, forms of amusement, classes of society, education, administration of justice, relations between capital and labor, different points of view of various classes on the same subject; superstitions; social, economic, and political abuses; literary interests; fashions; sense of humor; public spirit; country life; commerce; prejudices; bigotries; and general attitude of mind of the eighteenth century? Any one of these questions would in itself make a profitable study. These same questions can be applied to the essays of other times. Apply them to a contemporary essay by John Galsworthy, G. K. Chesterton, Agnes Repplier, Christopher Morley, or Katherine Fullerton Gerould. You will find the answers quite as illuminating.

BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Biography and autobiography are interesting forms of prose composition of which there are fewer great specimens than there are of the essay. A biography is the true story of a person's life as told by another. An autobiography is the true story of a person's life told by himself. Memoirs, which are usually written by a prominent person, are collections of facts, anecdotes, and opinions about people, places, and public events of the author's lifetime; they do not necessarily include an account of the author's life. These three forms are of genuine historical interest since they give valuable insight into the life and times of their chief characters; more than this, some of them are keen studies in human nature. A few are permanent contributions to literature.

A biography or autobiography usually includes an account of the chief events of the subject's life, details about the What a biogra- people with whom he came in contact, accounts phy may include of the principal events of his public and private life which show his relation to the life of his times and reveal his character, and comment on the subject himself, a discussion, explanation, or defense of his character, a summing up of the value of his life to his fellowmen.

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Some biographies are written merely because of the writer's personal interest in the subject; others are written because Points of view of the writer's interest in the period in which from which biog- the subject lived, the problems which his life suggests, or the things in which he was interested; some are written as a tribute to or defense of the subject; others are written from a desire to make an unprejudiced, dispassionate record of a human life and its significance; still others are written for inspirational purposes. The source of the writer's interest determines the point of view from which the biography is written and the

distribution of emphasis throughout the book. Few biographies are written with absolute impartiality.

Autobiographies are similar to biographies except that the author naturally refrains from estimating his own character and achievements or interpreting his times with any pretense of finality. They are written from various motives, from the frank egotism of Benevenuto Cellini's Autobiography to the inspirationalism of Helen Keller's Story of My Life or the self-defense of Cardinal Newman's Apologia pro Vita Sua. In any case the reader must take into account the reasons for which the book was written.

Until recently the tendency in writing biography was to adopt one of two points of view. Either the biographer was frankly enthusiastic and far from judicial in Difficulties of his estimate of his subject; or else he strove so writing biography desperately to be impartial that his work was cold. In any case, he was beset by difficulties of assigning motives, interpreting character, and making final judgments which were at best fallible. Of recent years a new style of biography has come into existence-a style exemplified by Lytton Strachey's Eminent Victorians and Queen Victoria, by Philip Guedalla's The Second Empire, by Gamaliel Bradford's The Soul of Samuel Pepys. The tendency here is to remove the illusion of heroism and idealism that so often hampers the judgment of the inspirational biographer; and to show the subject with all the weaknesses and pettinesses that beset all human beings. It is, indeed, an attempt to show the subject in his great moments without forgetting to show him in his little moments. The biographer tries to give a fascinating psychological study of his subject; frequently his comments on what he finds are ironical and disillusioning. However brilliant such biographies are, they must be read with the same caution as the other types; it is impossible for human judgments of other human beings to be wholly fair or for human insight

into human nature to be infallible. All biography should be read with sympathetic interest, but cum grano salis.

There are various methods of writing biography and autobiography. They may follow a strict chronological Methods of writ- order; or they may follow some sort of topical ing biography plan, calling attention to crises in the subject's life or to various contributions he made to the life of his times. They may view him as a member of his class or profession, as a factor in the development of his times, as an example of a theory, or simply as a human being. They may seek to include all the available facts about his life, or they may sift these facts so as to emphasize only what the writer wishes to emphasize. The interest may be in his associates, his times, his lifework, the lesson his life suggests, or just himself. Before the value of the book can be determined the method and the point of view of the writer must be discovered. Then we may judge his estimate of the man about whom he is writing.

The following questions will be helpful in judging biography or autobiography:

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In the first place, what is the purpose of the book? Is it written from a spirit of hero-worship? Is it written to inspire Exercises in the others by showing how a life may exemplify a study of biogmoral ideal? Is the interest in the subject himself or in his times? Does the life of the subject suggest problems which are of interest to the author? Is the author interested in the things that made up the subject's life, for instance, his profession, his daily problems, his books, his amusements? Is the book written as a frank tribute to some great quality or qualities in the subject? If so, how does it emphasize these qualities? Do you feel that other qualities are excluded to make the ideal ones stand out? Is the book a defense of the subject? If so, what charges are answered and what line does the defense take?

Is there evidence that the author was seeking to be impartial and dispassionate? Does he at any time reveal prejudices or predilections that make you question the judicial character of his estimates? Does he seek to explain motives? To excuse faults or to condemn them? Does he seek to interpret the psychology of his subject, to explain his acts and thoughts in that light? Does he make judgments which seem to you fair or prejudiced, wise or mistaken? Is his comment ironical? over-enthusiastic? Does he use chronological order, or does he follow some topical plan? Does he attempt to point out the value or significance of his subject's life? Does he regard him from any fixed point of view, that is, as a member of some class, an example of some type, or a factor in the development of his times; or does he regard him as just an interesting human being? Does he seek to include a wealth of material or is there evidence that he has sifted and selected the material that he has used? Does he seek to teach a lesson by means of the biography? What use does he make of portraits, illustrations, diagrams, facsimiles, quotations from sources, opinions of contemporaries, letters, diaries? Is there evidence that he has organized this material with literary skill? What literary qualities do you notice in the book? Narrative power? Dramatic skill? Power to visualize and to make real event and people? Tendency to author's comment? Humor? Emotional power? Eloquence? Vividness? Irony? Ability to select the salient and pass over the trivial? To what extent does the personality of the author influence the portrait he gives of his subject?

HISTORY

History is, of course, the written record of what man has done, attempted, thought, and felt in the past. History It does not properly come within the scope of this book but

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