THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14919, 18 March 1914, Page 11

THOUGHTS OF LEADERS.

(FROM OTTR OWN COB3.ZSPOSV7XT.)

LONDON, February 4

WHAT IS STYLE

Sir Arthur Quiller-Ceuch, Professor • of English Literature at Cambridge— 1 "Seeing that in human discourse so - much must ever depend on who speaks, and to whom, in what mood, and upon r what occasion, and seeing that literai tore must needs take account of all > maimer of writers, audiences, moods, . occasions, I hold it as a sin against tho ; light to put up warnings against any [ word that comes to us in tho fair way of , use and wont, as •wire/ for instance, [ for a telegram, even as surely as wo • should warn off hybrids of deliberate . pedantic importers, such as 'anti-body' k and 'picture-drome.' It is better to err ' on tho sido of liberty than on the side of tho censor; since by tho manumitting of new words new blood is infused into a tongue of which our first pride ' should be that it is flexible, alive, and ' capable of responding to new demands. ' Tho first and last secret of a good stylo consists in thinking with the heart as well as with the head. To express ourselves is a very small part of tho busi- ' news as compared with impressing our--1 solves, the aim of tho whole process be- ' iug to persuade, to communicate ' thoughts or emotions. What am I urg- ' ing? That style in writing is much the . same thing as good manners in other • human intercourseP Well, why not? 1 am not just advising for your worldly advantage only, but for your artistio • salvation. Tho world, England and . Scotland especially, enjoys, demands, pays for preaching. Mr Hall Came and , Miss Corelli are preaching, dinning their personalities in volume after volume. Even St evensen—beloved master —con- ', descended to bo tho Shorter Catechist in the end, and was popular as I, who would have knelt to tie Stevenson's shoe latchet, am standing here preaching, preaching. So far as Handel stood above Mendelssohn, so far stands tho great masculine objective writers above all who appeal to us by sentiment or private emotion. Mention of other great masculine objective writers brings mo to my last word: Steep yourselves m them ; habitually bring all to the test of them." Wl-LT-POLITIK. Prince Lichnowsky, on tho Kaiser's birthday— "Whether we are Prussians, Bavanans, Saxons, or subjects of another Federal State, we consider ourselves Germans all with equal rights and equal duties, and wo do not think that German interests are served by the pursuance of separate interests which necessarily run counter to tho idea of EmSire. What Prussia has done for the inipire is too woll known to need special cotnmeut. Besides, her merits have been acknowledge-1 by the other Federal States by adopting tho Pi*T__sian example as a standard in rrany respects, and by building up the Empire on a Prussian foundation. And thus it must continue The completion of national adjustment to the needs of the Empire, the blending of interests, the deve+opment of social conditions, all occasionally compel tne Imperial idea to assert itself. The German nation calls for a world policy, and not a retrogressive policy, and the conditions of a community can be as little restored to what obtained thirty years ago as can be .hoso of tho individual. As Pnnce Bismarck's utterances are so frequently misapplied, 1 should like to remind you of tko words which he. addressed to a Conservative deputation at Kiel m 1891: 'We Prussians also have a" national feeling of our own, a brarcfa. of the great German national success. But as soon as I saw that the Prussian feeling of, nationality stood in the way of the welding of the other States, I gave up tlie pursuance of purely Prussian aims.' " A DEAN ON SOCIALISM. The Dean of St. Paul's, at Sion Col"We live in the midst of a babel of voices, and a great deal of manufactured opinion. Probably three people out of four, if asked to name the strongest mental spiritual cureent of the present day_ would confidently say it is the current which is carrying us towards Social Reform or Socialism. It is only very looso talk to speak of • State Socialism being an immediate danger. I doubt, indeed, whether Socialism ever does take much hold of tho public mind in England except when it is understood as a machine for expropriating landlords and capitalists. One can fancy that after a miserable experience of anarchism this country might choose to throw itself in the power of a strong man. Tlyoa is no price which a people will not pay to get rid of a continuance of sheer anarchy. The Socialist movement lias been anti-organic all along. In my opinion tho purely- individualistic ideal of the fullest and happiest, richest, and pleasantest life for everybody is the driving force of the Labour movement. The spiritual current on which the Labour movement and other revolutionary agitations float, and which is miscalled Socialism, is really an individualistic ideal. Another spiritual current or rathor a pair of contrary currents, is what I should call the mechanical and the organic. As for th© anti-intellect-ual and anti-scientific, superstitious side of the movement, I distrust them profoundly, and I wish I could say that, religious bodies dircountenanco them more than they do. It will be a misfortune if the valuable lessons of science taught during the last hundred years should be threatened by a recrudescence of the earlier beliefs in the law of Nature, which is not uniform, and which is liable at any time to bo broken. If I were asked whether this revolt against natural science is to bo regarded .is deeo and strong I am inclined to say it is not so. THE GERMAN FUTURE. The Kaiser on tho centenary of 1813: "To my delight I wjls able to some j extent to be a personal witness of tho national enthusiasm with which the heroic deed.* - of our fathers and th© happily achieved unity of the German i stocks weTe honoured by young and old in the north and south of tho Fatherland. But the German nation did not 6top there. In unanimity with its ' princes, it at the same time showed that it is determined, like its fathers, to ; make every necessary sacrifice for tho • protecton of the Fatherland and the strength of its defensive forces, to ! maintain the position which it has won with difficulty among the civilised nations of the earth. With confidence that those patriotic sentiments will ever be cherished and cultivated in German hearts, as an inalienable in- : heritanee of the great time, I gladly J give expression to the hope that the ' Lord God will further lead the German * countries along peaceful paths to pros- * perous development." '