d be possible to
illustrate by successive quotations from any first-rate novel, like
"The Egoist" for example, how the same characteristics are portrayed
first by the one and then by the other method.

=Subdivisions of Both Methods.=--Each of the two methods shows itself
in many different phases. There are several distinct ways of
delineating character directly, and also several distinct means of
indirect delineation. It is perhaps serviceable for the purposes of
study to distinguish them somewhat sharply one from another; but it
must always be remembered that the masters of fiction usually employ a
commingling of them all, without conscious awareness of any critical
distinction between them. Bearing this ever in mind, let us venture on
a critical examination of some of the most frequently recurrent
phases, first, of the direct, and secondly, of the indirect, method.

=I. Direct Delineation: 1. By Exposition.=--The most obvious, and at
the same time the most elementary, means of direct portrayal is by a
deliberate expository statement of the leading traits of the character
to be portrayed. Thus, at the outset of "The Vicar of Wakefield," the
author, writing in the person of the Vicar, thus expounds the traits
of Mrs. Primrose:--

"I was ever of opinion, that the honest man who married and brought up
a large family, did more service than he who continued single, and
only talked of population. From this motive, I had scarce taken orders
a year before I began to think seriously of matrimony, and chose my
wife as she did her wedding-gown, not for a fine glossy surface, but
such qualities as would wear well. To do her justice, she was a
good-natured notable woman; and as for breeding, there were few
country ladies who could show more. She could read any English book
without much spelling; but for pickling, preserving, and cookery, none
could excel her. She prided herself also upon being an excellent
contriver in housekeeping; though I could never find that we grew
richer with all her contrivances."

This elementary means of portrayal has the obvious advantage of
succinctness. The reader is told at once, and with a fair measure of
completeness, what he is to think about the character in question. For
this reason the expedient is highly serviceable at the outset of a
story. So excellent an artist as Stevenson, in the "New Arabian
Nights," began each tale in the collection with a paragraph in which
he expounded the main tr