3. Introduce and dismiss the historic present with some
words of explanation. Dickens, who is much given to
the device, is usually careful to mark the transitions.
Thus, in giving a generalized narrative (see § 34) of Da-
vid's life soon after the mother's second marriage, he
begins : *

Let me remember how it used to be, arid bring one morning back again.
I come into the second-best parlor after breakfast. . . . My mother is
ready for me at her writing desk, etc.
And so on for two pages, all in the present tense. Then
the end is marked:

It seems to me, at this distance of time, as if my unfortunate studies
generally took this course, etc. — Dickens : David Copperfdd, i. oh. It.
The whole ceremony of David's wedding with Dora (ii.
ch. XV.), is narrated in the present; it is in form a retro-
spective vision.
Another writer much given to the device is Carlyle.
His French Revolution is especially characterized by it.
For most readers it is overdone, creating the impression
of a mere vision rather than of sober historic actuality.
The following extract, from Carlyle's article on Doctor
Francia, is a sample of his more moderate style ; it is a
description of an army-march across the Andes :

Wayworn sentries with difficulty keep themselves awake ; tired mules
chew barley rations or doze on three legs ; the feeble watch-fire will
hardly kindle a cigar ; Canopus and the Southern Cross glitter down ;
and all snore steadily, begirt by granite deserts, looked on by the Con-
stellations in that manner.
With this compare the extract from Homer, § 44. The
final clause, in that manner, exemplifies Carlyle's fondness
for loose sentence-structure, § 92.
