ON FAMILIAR ESSAYS

Evening Star, Issue 23729, 9 November 1940, Page 4

ON FAMILIAR ESSAYS

It was Montaigne who invented iho essay. An “ essai ” was a trial of thought-gathering, a tentative expression of opinion. Its range was limitless, in language personal, in tone easy; and intimate.

Montaigne’s “ essai ” has become tha fluid familiar essay wo know to-day, that form of literature which is spiritually akin to poetry in its frank, selfrevelatory content. While it is structurally formless, it is no mere chaos'of utterance; it is simply a meandering communication between minds, a gaj. relaxed, friendly flowing of commetta that often, by pleasantly circuitous means, opens out on to the deepest l , waters of thought and feeling. . .

There is behind many an apparent triviality a serious grappling with tb» problems of life. But even if the cogitation under the charm is of the slightest stuff there is always at least th» charm. And that is a quality our streamlined civilisation would do well to try to repossess. The familiar essay, as practised by; such men as Lamb, Morley, Leacock, and Beerbohm may contain narrative* elements as well as descriptive and expositional. No matter. The content may be as catholic as that of a country store; it may concern itself with daisies or dictators. Its chief requirement is personality. It may have nimbleness and newness of phrase, an obliqueness and originality of observation, a charm of ego. As one sly essayist himself put it, it must have a “ certain discreet shamelessness.” It must be as companionable as the wag of a dog’s tail. In emotion it may ha humorous or tragic, and is frequently both. It is cultured, chatty, and candidly confessional. On a cold day a familiar essay is as warming and cheery as a blazing log fire; on a hot day it is gently refrigerative, as refreshing and cooling as au electric fan.—From 1 How to Enjoy Reading,’ by Charles Lee.