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Originally appearing in Volume V25, Page 1058 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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XXV . 34It is boasted by the admirers of See also:

Flaubert that his See also:style is an See also:enamel, and those who say this perhaps forget that the beauty of an enamel resides wholly in its See also:surface and not at all in the substance below it. This is the danger which lies in wait for those who consider too exquisitely the value and arrangement of their words. Their style becomes too glossy, too highly varnished, and attracts too much See also:attention to itself. The greatest See also:writing is that which in its magnificent spontaneity carries the reader with it in its See also:flight; that which detains him to admire itself can never rise above the second See also:place. Forgetfulness of self, See also:absence of conceit and affectation, simplicity in the sense not of thinness or poorness but of genuineness—these are elements essential to the cultivation of a See also:noble style. Here again, thought must be the basis, not vanity or the See also:desire to astonish. We do not See also:escape by our ingenuities from the See also:firm principle of See also:Horace, " scribendi recti sapere est et principium et See also:fens." In speaking of originality in style it must not be forgotten that memory exercises a strong and often an insidious effect upon writing. That which has been greatly admired will have a tendency to impregnate the mind, and its See also:echo, or, what is worse, its See also:cadence, will be unconsciously repeated. The cliche is the greatest danger which lies in wait for the vapid See also:modern author, who is tempted to adopt, instead of the one fresh See also:form which suits his See also:special thought, a word or even a See also:chain of words, which conventionally represents it. Thus " the devouring See also:element " was once a striking variant for the See also:short word " See also:fire," and - a dangerous hidden place was once well described as " a veritable See also:death-See also:trap," but these have See also:long been cliches which can only be used by writers who are insincere or languid. Worse than these are continuous phrases, and even sentences, such as are met with in the leaders of daily See also:newspapers, which might be lifted bodily from their places and inserted elsewhere, so completely have they lost all vitality and reality.

With regard to the training which those who wish to write well should resign themselves to undergo, there is some difference of See also:

opinion, based upon difference of temperament. There are those who believe that the See also:gift of style is inborn, and will reveal itself at the moment of See also:mental maturity without any See also:external help. There are others who hold that no amount of labour is excessive, if it be directed to a study and an emulation of what are called " the best See also:models." No doubt these theories are both admissible. If a See also:man is not See also:born to write well, no toil in the See also:imitation of See also:Addison or See also:Ruskin will make his style a brilliant one; and a born writer will See also:express himself with exactitude and fire even though he be but an idle student of the See also:classics. Yet, on the other See also:hand, the very large number of persons who have a certain aptitude for writing, yet no strong native gift, will undoubtedly cure themselves of faults and achieve skill and smoothness by the study of those writers who have most kinship with themselves. To be of any service, however, it seems that those writers must have used the same See also:language as their pupils. Of the imitation of the ancients much has been written, even to the extent of the publication of manuals. But what is that imitation of the See also:verse of See also:Homer which leads to-See also:day to See also:Chapman and to-morrow to See also:Pope ? What the effect of the study of the See also:prose of See also:Theophrastus which results in the prose of Addison? The See also:good poet or prose-man, however closely he studies an admirable See also:foreign See also:model, is really anxious to say something which has never before been said in his own language. The stimulus which he receives from any foreign predecessor must be in the direction of analogous or parallel effort, not in that of imitation. The importance of words, indeed, is exemplified, if we regard it closely, in this very question, so constantly mooted, of the imitation of the ancients, by the loss of beauty fatally See also:felt in a See also:bad See also:translation.

The vocabulary of a See also:

great writer has been, as See also:Pater says, " winnowed "; it is impossible to think of See also:Sophocles or of Horace as using a word which is not the best possible for introduction at that particular point. But the translator has to interpret the ideas of these See also:ancient writers into a vocabulary which is entirely different from theirs, and unless he has a See also:genius of almost equal impeccability he will undo the winnowing See also:work. II He will scatter See also:chaff and refuse over the pure See also:grain which the classic poet's genius had so completely fanned and freed. The employment of vague and loose terms where the See also:original author has been eclectic, and of a See also:flood of verbiage where he has been frugal, destroys all semblance of style, although the meaning may be correctly preserved. The errors principally to be avoided in the cultivation of a pure style are confusion, obscurity, incorrectness and affectation. To take the earliest of these first, no See also:fault is so likely to be made by an impetuous beginner as a mingling together of ideas, images, propositions which are not on the same See also:plane or have no proper relation. This is that See also:mass of " stunning sounds and voices all confused " which See also:Milton deprecates. One of the first lessons to be learned in the See also:art of good writing is to avoid perplexity and fatigue in the mind of the reader by retaining clearness and See also:order in all the segments of a See also:paragraph, as well as propriety of See also:grammar and See also:metaphor in every phrase. Those who have overcome this initial difficulty, and have learned to avoid a jumble of misrelated thoughts and sentences, may nevertheless See also:sin by falling into obscurity, which, indeed, is sometimes a`wilful See also:error and arises from a desire to See also:cover poverty of thought by a semblance of profundity. The meaning of " obscurity is, of course, in the first instance " darkness," but in speaking of literature it is used of a darkness which arises from unintelligibility, not from See also:depth of expression, but from cloudiness and fogginess of See also:idea. Of the errors of style which are the consequences of bad See also:taste, it is difficult to speak except in an entirely empirical spirit, because of the absence of any See also:absolute See also:standard of beauty by which See also:artistic products can be judged. That See also:kind of writing which in its own See also:age is extravagantly cultivated and admired may, in the next age, be as violently repudiated; this does not preclude the possibility of its recovering See also:critical if not popular favour.

Perhaps the most remarkable instance of this is the revolution made against the See also:

cold and stately Ciceronian prose of the See also:middle of the 16th See also:century by the so-called Euphuists. This occurred almost simultaneously in several nations, but has been traced to its See also:sources in the See also:Spanish of See also:Guevara and in his See also:English imitators, See also:North and See also:Pettie, whom See also:Lyly in his turn followed with his celebrated Euphues. Along with these may not unfairly be mentioned See also:Montaigne in See also:France and See also:Castiglione in See also:Italy, for, although these men were not proficients in Guevara's artificial manner, his estilo See also:alto, still, by their easiness and brightness, their use of vivid imagery and their graceful See also:illumination, they marked the universal revulsion against the Ciceronian stiffness. Each of these new See also:manners of writing See also:fell almost immediately into desuetude, and the precise and classic mode of writing in another form came into See also:vogue (Addison, See also:Bossuet, See also:Vico, See also:Johnson). But what was best in the ornamental writers of the 16th century is now once more fully appreciated, if not indeed admired to excess. A facility in bringing up before the memory incessant analogous metaphors is the See also:property, not merely of certain men, but of certain ages; it flourished in the age of See also:Marino and is welcomed again in that of See also:Meredith. A vivid, See also:concrete style, full of See also:colour and images, is not to be condemned because it is not an abstract style, scholastic and systematic. It is to be judged on its own merits and by its own See also:laws. It may be good or bad; it is not bad merely because it is metaphorical and ornate. The amazing errors which See also:lie strewn along the See also:shore of See also:criticism See also:bear See also:evidence to the lack of sympathy which has not perceived this See also:axiom and has wrecked the See also:credit of dogmatists. To De Quincey, a convinced Ciceronian, the style of See also:Keats " belonged essentially to the vilest collections of See also:wax-work filagree or gilt gingerbread "; but to read such a See also:judgment is to encourage a question whether all discussion of style is not futile. Yet that particular See also:species of affectation which encourages untruth, affectation, See also:parade for the See also:mere purpose of producing an effect, must be wrong, even though See also:Cicero be guilty of it.

The use of the word " style," in the sense of the See also:

present remarks, is not entirely modern. For example, the See also:early English critic See also:Puttenham says that " style is a See also:constant and continualphrase or tenour of speaking and writing" (r58g). But it P7? in France and in the great age of See also:Louis XIV. that the art of writing began to be carefully studied and ingeniously described. Mme de See also:Sevigne, herself See also:mistress of a manner exquisitely disposed to reflect her vivacious, See also:tender and eloquent See also:character, is particularly fond of using the word " style " in its modern sense, as the expression of a See also:complete and See also:rich See also:personality. She says, in a phrase which might stand alone as a See also:text on the subject, " Ne quittez jamais le naturel, votre tour s'y est forme, et cela compose un style parfait." Her contemporary, Boileau, contributed much to the study, and spoke with just See also:pride of mon style, ami de la lumiere." The expression to form one's style, a se faire un style, appears, perhaps for the first See also:time, in the See also:works of the See also:abbe d'Olivet (1682-1768), who was addicted to rhetorical See also:speculation. Two great supporters of the pure art of writing, See also:Swift and See also:Voltaire, contributed much to the study of style in the 18th century. The former declared that " proper words in proper places make the true See also:definition of a style "; the latter, more particularly, that " le style rend singulieres See also:les choses les plus communs, fortifie les plus faibles, See also:donne de la grandeur aux plus simples." Voltaire speaks of " le melange See also:des styles " as a great fault of the age in which he lived; it has come to be looked upon as a See also:principal merit of that in which we live. The problem of how to obtain a style has frequently been treated in works of more or less ephemeral character. In France the See also:treatises of M. Albalat have received a certain amount of See also:official recognition, and may be mentioned here as containing a good See also:deal c£ See also:sound See also:advice mixed with much that is jejune and pedagogic. If M. Albalat distributes a See also:poison, the antidote is supplied by the wit of M.

Remy de Gourmont; the one should not be imbibed without the other. See See also:

Walter Pater, An See also:Essay on Style (See also:London, 1889) ; Walter See also:Raleigh, Style (London, 1897) ; See also:Antoine Albalat, L'Art d'ecrire enseigneen vingl lecons (See also:Paris, 1898), and De la Formation du style See also:par l'assimilation des auteurs (Paris, 1901); Remy de Gourmont, Le Probleme du style (Paris, 1902). Also Goyer-See also:Linguet, Le Genie de la langue francaise (Paris, 1846), and ' Loyson-Bridet (i.e. See also:Marcel Schwob), Moeurs des diurnales (Paris, 19oz), a See also:satire on the principal errors to which modern writers in all See also:languages are liable. (E.

End of Article: XXV

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