he effect of recording actual
experience. A story (according to the authority we so often invoke,--Mr.
Gardiner), "whether it be as simple as those of the Book of Genesis or
as complex as Mr. James or Mr. Meredith, must carry the effect of the
concreteness, and, as it were, the solidity of life." The plot, the
characters, the setting of a story _which is to live_, must have the
vividness of real experience. This does not mean that the creator of the
story must have actually experienced the plot, the people, and the
pictures which together make up his tale--they may be the product of
actual experience or of imagination--but it does mean that while he is
putting these elements together and creating his narrative he must
realize _as though it were actual experience_ the incident of his plot
with the characters and in the atmosphere of his creation. Such
realization can only come through vivid imagination.

Exactly the same demand is made upon the imagination of the interpreter.
When you retell the tale of a master creator of stories your
interpretation will be convincing, exactly as was his creation,--through
the lucid play of a vivid imagination. You must make me feel that I am
in the presence of incidents, characters, pictures which you yourself
have experienced. Nay, more, you must make me feel that I myself am
actually meeting these people, seeing these pictures, taking part in
these incidents, as you relive for me _in imagination_ at the moment of
your interpretation the tale you are retelling to me.

SUGGESTIVE ANALYSIS

We shall use for suggestive analysis in this study not a complete
specimen of narration, but several examples illustrating two of the
three elements necessary to the personnel of a good story. These three
recognized elements are the setting or situation which the pictures
compose, the atmosphere which the characters create, and the plot or the
action in which the characters engage. We shall leave the question of
the plot to class work upon the selections from epic poetry to be
considered later in this study.

Suppose we test our imaginations in the analysis of a situation or
setting before we attempt a character study. Remember the situation is
to be realized through imagination as though it were actual experience.
It is to be _recreated_. Give your imagination full play in this opening
chapter of George Eliot's _Mill on the Floss_. Let us read the first
sentence:

A wide plain, where th