1pFFjZK

and without an echo of other voices;
LEWES 351
and men with a keen
sense of logical relation will instinctively arrange their sentences
in an order that best unfolds the meaning. The
French are great masters of the law of Sequence, and, did space
permit, I could cite many excellent examples. One brief
passage from Royer-Collard must suffice: "Les faits que
1'observation laisse
pars et muets la causalite* les rassemble,
les enchaine, leur prete un langage. Chaque fait reVele
celui qui a pre'ce'de', prophe*tise celui qui va suivre."
The ear is
only a guide to the harmony of a period, and often
tempts us into the feebleness of expletives or approximative
expressions for the sake of a cadence. Yet, on the other hand,
if we disregard the subtle influences of harmonious arrangement,
our thoughts lose much of the force which would otherwise
result from their logical subordination. The easy evolution
of thought in a melodious period, quietly taking up
way a variety of incidental details,
on its
yet never lingering long
enough over them to divert the attention or to suspend the
continuous crescendo of interest, but by subtle influences of
proportion allowing
each clause of the sentence its
separate
significance, is the product of a natural gift,
as rare as the
gift of music, or of poetry. 13 But until men come to understand
that Style is an art, and an amazingly difficult art, they
will continue with careless presumption
to tumble out their
sentences as they would lilt stones from a cart, trusting very
much to accident or gravitation for the shapeliness of the
result. I will write a passage which may serve as an example
of what I
mean, although the defect is purposely kept within
very ordinary limits:
"To construct a sentence with many loosely
obviously dependent clauses, each lansc <
an important
meaning or a concrete ima.^e the
containing
and not
vivacity of which,
like a boulder in a shallow stream, disturbs the equable