ENGLISH PROSE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 336, 24 October 1908, Page 12

ENGLISH PROSE.

The "Academy" prints a fih& article 011 "The '.Comas of English ■ £rosV' by"J. tf. TOv'jgW© a Complete surrey -of the course of English pros© is, says the writer, no easy task, 'there is SO vast a confusioh of exoelleniies, si perplexing a host .of gehius., 'Anarbitfary. but SOftvpient starting-point taay, however, b© found in the English Bible, since , in that arc summed up," and exalted to a noblo pferfftctness, tho eapafcity and beauty tS 'our tongue as then ancl theretofore in tee. _ Few things, I imagine, would J» teort -dfeligh'tful than '& Study of tW«eentials; 6f. Bibliftal pftso; but that, ag&ih, would: bfe a deviation ffOtt the Scope of this brief., papei-v And, toWedVer, dHhe iapaeity and 'beauty of tho !Bible language it Were surely gupisrflwms to speftlf in detail, The jnnique competence Of thlfe varied Elizabethan speech (tjr Jacobean if you Will) is displayed alikegin plain narrative and subli'mfe dehoftation; ite unioue beauty in pages of lyrical JovelmfeSS So lofty that it Sfeems tho'' trail's* Jators rtUst have heafd the ihcommufiicablet music, of ,r', " 'HJtWis dfevout and holy psalms y-Siaging everlastingly. ,v----"Ig there another book, is there *v«£lT body: of. Wtifcing. of the. Same compass, com- - ; prising Sf>&6h 60 noble 111 . sublimity, in .poetic vitality, in FaraUar directness of colloquy, ill .profound simplicity of httmblo devotion? Every man knows, more Or less by heart, passages in each kind, and "would regard tt an iinpertinence the attempt to jwaroftte them. But it is not perhaps so generally pehftivfed that the English Bible *' t 1® °Js 6 dispensable book for the student ,of the English language, both for itself and »r its i&ftbrta'nce in the determination of of «otae of oiir greatest prbse "A, chief characteristic which, whatever else is passed by, must not hs overlooked is, ' I thinki the sense of echo which the Biblical m*toM Almost throughout do you reoi that this tteaiofablo speech of such dig. mty .and.power, is tile.reverbojation of a Jarger, utterance; 'that in the subtle and various Cadence, even in the choice and order qf Words, there is less of deliberate art than of passive, response to an ancient, spiritual haftaOny. This, is not to say, of course, that tbere is any lack of art in the style attained; a the consummate patience of a great Jolted With great skill in words ebuld produced it; my moaning is that tho style is more, far more, than a cunning achievement. . « th? fruit of 'devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit Who can enrich with all utterance and knowledge, and sonds out Hia Seraphim with the hallowed fire of His altar to touch and purify the lips of whom He pleases. The effect is continually vocal, Whether the laiig&age iis6 to the exaltation of poetry (as in that lino which is the of Mr. Swinburne's fine verses, 1 By tho waters of Babylon we sat down and wept") or fall into such a familiar note of staple narrative as in that passage of St. Paul's fArewell. "And in mentioning this singular vocal jUality, this persistent Sense of echo, we touch, I think, the secret of the almost in* romparablc greatness of the prose, not only of the Bible, out of the great army of Eliza* botlian and later writers. 11l an acute chapter of 'The Idea ef a University,' Newman, himself jo sure a master of language, bids us ooaeffe of literature that: 11 ' It addresses itself, in its primary idea,' to tie ear, not to the eye. We call it the ponit ef speech, We call it language, that is, thfc use of (the tongue.' ''Tliis voeal -characteristic is to be discovferia i'a the rhythm of the best prose of that tlMt. Clearly the rhythm of pfoso is different ffow the rhythm of poetry, though in an . al* most indefinable why; hut its determining presence ill the best of tho former is as,surely to be recognised As- in the latter. And to the influcnco of tho Bible, 'the. book that bfcgat English prose,' is the distinctive quality greatest prose at least in part to bo attributed. r Ihe point I wish to emphasise just now— a perfectly obvious point, 1 believe—is that m such writers as Taylor, Browne, Donne, Milten (to nanlo but the most conspicuous) is found the clear l3iblioal note, tho perpetual oadence and rhythm of the only-bcgctter Of our great pi ose. It is by'this rather than by any unessential faiicifulness or pleasant quainthcss—sometimes ignofantly dctlared a chtef feharacteristic—-that their work is enJidhled. These tributary graces have often boon remarked,' and assuredly are the com- »•& delight of all that read, but they are o»ly graces; more vital is the controlling rhytba."

H»r» aro some extracts, from what thi writer says , of De Quincey, Newman, wid Bn«iin:—"Do Quincfty's style is far from being inimitable, but it is tho worst possible to imiliit*. Every fault of its aUthof ia.diseernifcle in it—and, be it Said also, every excellence. He is among tho first t of them that wske of prose tho coriscifllis instrument of »rt that wo r.ow know it ; lid is afritmg the first and chief of those rare ftftißtS who Uso vrori# magically, as ail incantation to evoke piraiji beauty. But triors than tho word is ill? sentence, moro than aught else tho rhytkm which ftam childhood to death purBuefl him and inspired in him those largo, opuMt harmonies of tt-hlch beyond any man 6r his generation he knew tilts secret. So is a mighty-mouthed inventor of harmonies. JVni as ho ever felt some strong, indesDfib* able impulsion ordariiif* his steps in the ..woeful-niaae of the world, so there is always ; a like influence in the movement'of hiß SCU-

" Odes the fe'adb'r rblhomher that passage in the epehing of the Autobiography wherein De Qnincey tells of that sad, brief watch bj tp ,W'dy of his dead sistfer, When 1 a Solemn Wind begin tt> blow . -. . a Wind that might haVe feWept the fields of mortality for a thousand- centuries '—a wind to be heard again aVid agikin by lliiti ih thfe 'Cb'ursfc bf his visionary, impassioned life? It is Such a willd, ' hollow, solemn, Memnohiah,' that stirs in his prose, and lifts the great waves. In his Mt, As in hife life, it is ever present. • "It -is Newman who disposes of the plausible, ridiculous nbtion that "style is &rt extra, an artifico j it is Newman who, supremely or English waiters, exemplifies a pure beauty of I style inalienable from the necessities of his SP'eefch, inseparable fl'om the full expression of his thought. And it is Newman who reVeals lii his p'roSo that persistent vital control 'of tho manner by the idea, of the sentence hy.the.rhythm, in a.word, that austere and. imperative Subjection fcf the. incidental to 'the essential Which is 'demanded in the writer Who is to/eccive,our_unreluctant, unswerving homage. '" Even more Slight be Said bf his great compeer Ruskin, only it is perhaps even mofb superfluous to say. it. To look, through thosfe fetoafclfig indices of his Vnahy bboks aha note the multitude of Biblical Ybferences and allusions "is- to pertefve that his ear, as his soul, was possessed by the great llarmbnics of the Biblical not less com- J plete in tho simple, direct manner of ' Praeterita, than in 'the. passionate alld spacioUs rhythm of the earlier work." -