1pFFjZK

LEWES 321
No Style can be good that is not sincere. It must be the
expression of its author's mind. There are, of course, certain
elements of composition which must be mastered as a dancer
learns his steps, but the style of the writer, like the grace of the
dancer, is only made effective by such mastery; it springs
from a deeper source. Initiation into the rules of construction
will save us from some gross errors of composition, but it
will not make a style. Still, less will imitation of another's
manner make one. In our day there are many who imitate
Macaulay's short sentences, iterations, antitheses, geographical
and historical illustrations, and eighteenth-century
diction, but who accepts them as Macaulays ? 4 They cannot
seize the secret of his charm, because that charm lies in
the felicity of his talent, not in the structure of his sentences;
in the fulness of his knowledge,
not in the character of his
illustrations. Other men aim at ease and vigor by discarding
Latinisms, and admitting colloquialisms; but vigor and
ease are not to be had on recipe. No study of models, no
attention to rules, will give the easy turn, the graceful phrase,
the simple word, the fervid movement, or the large clearness;
a picturesque talent
will
express itself in concrete images;
a genial nature will smile in pleasant turns and innuendoes;
a rapid, unhesitating, imperious mind will deliver its
quick
incisive phrases; a full, deliberating mind will overflow in
ample paragraphs laden with the weight of parentheses and
qualifying suggestions. The tfyk which is
good in one
would be vicious in another. The broken rhythm which
ases the energy of one >tyU- would ruin the In
;
ier. Both are excellencies where both are natural.
\V.- are always disagreeably impressed by an ob\ iou>
imitation of the manner of another, because we feel it to be
an insincerity, and also because it withdraws our attention
from the thing ^aid, to the way of saying it.
And here lies the