THE HARMONY OF VIRTUE

IV. 3. The Problem of the Mahabharata185labourer to pronounce on the soundness of a great engineeringwork, but still less would one ask a mathematician unacquaintedwith mechanics. To minds well-equipped for the task there oughtto be no insuperable difficulty in disengaging the style of a markedpoetic personality from a mass of totally different work. Theverdict of great art-critics on the genuineness of a professed OldMaster may not be infallible, but if formed on a patient study ofthe technique and spirit of the work, it has at least considerablechances of being correct. But the technique and spirit of poetryare far less easy to catch by an imitator than those of great painting,the charm of words being more elusive and unanalysable thanthat of line and colour.In unravelling the Mahabharata especially, the peculiar inimitablenature of the style of Vyasa immensely lightens the difficultiesof criticism. Had his been poetry of which the predominantgrace was mannerism, it would have been imitable withsome closeness; or even had it been a rich and salient style likeShakespeare's, Kalidasa's or Valmiki's, certain externals of it mighthave been reproduced by a skilled hand and the task of discernmentrendered highly delicate and perilous. Yet even in such stylesto the finest minds the presence or absence of an unanalysablepersonality within the manner of expression would be alwaysperceptible. The second layer of the Mahabharata is distinctlyRamayanistic in style, yet it would be a gross criticism that couldconfuse it with Valmiki's own work; the difference, as is alwaysthe case in imitations of great poetry, is as palpable as the similarity.Some familiar examples may be taken from English literature.Crude as is the composition and treatment of the threeparts of King Henry VI, its style unformed and everywhere fullof echoes, yet when we get such lines asThrice is he arm'd that hath his quarrel just,And he but naked, though lock'd up in steel,Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted,we cannot but feel that we are listening to the same poetic voiceas in Richard III,