THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE.*
MR. %seam; has devoted a great deal of time and thought to his book, and, without proclaiming any new discoveries or pro- leasing to eapply literary aspirants with any infallible receipts for the attainment of success, lie has given us an eminently sane and helpful examination of the subject. It should be noted that at the outset he takes the broadest possible view of the connotation of the term "style," which he regards as not a quality of expression but expression itself. Ile admits that style is by many believed to be a quality which gives distinction to certain writers or compositions, which is recognizable but yet incapable of analysis or explanation ; a quality which by eonie is regarded as belonging to the externals of literature. Mr. Rannie's view is that style is posterior rather than external to thought; that posteriority, unlike externality, carries no innuendo of inferiority; and that if, as be contends, style is the whole of expression, a great deal of it can be made the subject of explanation and analysis. As regards imitation, he does not discourage the practice of playing the "sedulous ape," to use Stevenson's often-quoted phrase, but with the caveat that, while "no one can reasonably hope to learn the art of good expression merely by the close study of models • The Etements of Style: an Introduction to Literary Criticism, Dr David Watson Itannie, M.A. London ; J. K. Dont and Sens. [4s. ed. net.]
of Style, it is certain that such study goes a good long way in the direction of helping the student towards the acquire- ment of good style." Not only can certain processes be learned, but style is infectious, and the study of noble writers tends to produce noble writing. None the less, he maintains that the real importance of the study of style is not practical but scientific; that we should aim, not at learning to do, but at knowing something. "Style is the essential part of litera- ture. Subtract style, and only what is ancillary to literature remains: literature itself is gone."
This view, which identifies the criticism of style with the essential part of literary criticism, entails. a panoramic range of treatment. All literary forms in prose and poetry are passed in review, including translations and journalism. Then we have an examination of words, sentences, paragraphs. sections, &c.; and, lastly, chapters in which unity, fashion, and individuality are successively dealt with. Mr. Rennie is a judicious if somewhat rigid critic. For example, his dictum that " as to events and characters, the novelist must not be fantastic ; he must be true to life; he most attain verisimilitude," would rule out a good deal of fiction which ministers to refreshment and recreation in virtue of its disregard for the realities of life—the novels of hilt. Anstey, to take one notable modern instance. A gain, the statement that in his novels of Scottish life Scott was " largely utilitarian " seems to us highly dis- putable. In this context we may note that Mr. Rennie'rt practical abstinence from critical comment on the methods of living writers, with one or two rare exceptions, though judicious, robs his work of completeness, in view of the remarkable developments and experiments that have been witnessed in the field of fiction, poetry, and the drama in the last twenty years. Another lacuna in the book is the absence of any specific reference—apart from the essayists—to humorous prose or poetry.
One of the best chapters in the book is that on "words," in which Mr. Rennie deals inter alia with the use of the " mighty monosyllable," Latinized forms, colloquialisms, and slang in a spirit equally removed from pedantry and autinomianism. We may quote a good passage in which he differentiates the style of pomp from that of sublimity "Both are forms of grandeur; and both are legitimate in litera- ture, as in other arts. Pomp belongs to the externals of grandeur] sublimity to its inward essence. Whore the inward essence of grandeur is given in literature, where style is sublime, as, for example, in so much of the Bible, it used not be, and it hardly ever is, polysyllabic (cf. Ezekiel xxxvii. et seq.). But where style is pompous, as in the best literature it often is, the writer instinctively uses many long, generally Romance, words. Thus, in the murder scene in Macbeth (Aut. II. So. 2), the bulk of the poetry has the grandeur of sublimity, and is conspicuously oligo- syllabic, e.g. :— ' Still it cried Stoop no more ' stn.
But, in Macboth's speech after the knocking at the gate, he passes from sublimity to pomp, and we got a polysyllabic Renege :— o, this hand will rather,' etc.
Again, on the morning after the murder, it is pomp, the externality of grandeur, which gives being to such lino as these
Strange screams of death And prophesying with accents terrible
Of dire (107711111.10.0t1 and confused events.' " On journalistic style Mr. Rennie writes with discrimination and good sense. Be notes the passing of the old flamboyant periods, which furnished Matthew Arnold with congenial matter for raillery against the young lions of Peterhorciugh Court. Still, one cannot help regretting the abandonment of those wonderful feats of periphrasis, as when Mr. Punek's advice to those a.bout to marry was described as "the memorable monosyllabic monition of the Dentoerittis of Fleet Street," or of those sensational openings, as when a " leader" on the death of Victor Enimanuel began : "The King of Terrors has gripped the King of Italy by the throat." The violence and virulence of the modern headline are a poor substitute for these explosions of literary upholstery.
Mr. Rennie has some interesting remarks on the quality of " timelessness," which, he considers, is much harder to attain in prose than in verse. This is the "antiseptic of style." and, while we acknowledge that on the whole the balance of argument is with Mr. Rennie in his broad interpretation of the term, we cannot altogether give up the looser and more popular view which regards it as that impalpable quality which is now bravura, now urbanity, but generally implies polish, the labor lime, and at its beat always confers an abiding distinction on the thought of which it is the vehicle.
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