is in its more restricted meaning that the term
is used here. Only that which is beautiful in form and expression,
inspiring and helpful in spirit, noble and righteous in sentiment can
be called literature as we are considering it. There may be weak and
frivolous books, well-meaning but inept books, and really bad books, but
none of them can be classed as literature.

Literary masterpieces are either prose or poetry, and in print the two
are easily recognizable by their difference in form. Coleridge once said
that prose consisted of words in their best order, while poetry was the
best words in their best order, a poetic definition that does not convey
a very accurate knowledge of the distinction. Poetry differs from prose
not only in the choice and arrangement of words, but also to a lesser
degree in sentiment and feeling. However, much verse, though faultless
in form, can never be considered real poetry, while much prose has real
poetic beauty.

_Prose_

The great bulk of the writings of the world is in prose. It is the
medium of hard sense, of practical knowledge, of argument and of
dialogue. Yet often it appeals to the imagination, charms with its
beauty and inspires to heroic deeds.

It seems to be generally accepted that four methods of expression are to
be found in prose: _narration_, _description_, _exposition_ and
_argumentation_. Narration deals with things in action, description with
the appearance of things, exposition explains the relations ideas bear
to one another, and argumentation not only does this, but tries at the
same time to convince. Theoretically, this distinction is very easy to
make, for action is the life of narration, appearance the theme of
description, explanation and exposition are synonymous, and no one
argues but with the hope of convincing. What can man do more than to
tell what has been done, tell how a thing looks, show how one thing
follows from another or is related to it, and endeavor to bring another
person to the same state of mind?

The accuracy and completeness of the classification is most evident
until one attempts to apply it practically to existing literature, and
then he finds that no literary masterpiece belongs entirely to any one
of the classes, but that these mingle and unite, one or the other
usually predominating. This ruling element, the one which is
proportionately greater, will govern the classification of a selection.
In any story, narration and descriptio