NOTES

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 10, 8 March 1923, Page 30

NOTES

"And" On the use of the "paragraphic and" a writer in America says: _ . In a communication addressed to America for May 25, entitled "Some Preciosities of Literature," A.P. called attention to certain words which seem to be overworked. Among them are "and," "book," and "quality." We are not now concerned with "book" and "quality." We would like to say a few words on behalf of the ostracised "and," not "and" purum; plain, simple, democratic "and." For the "and" to which A.P. takes exception is the haughty and dandified "and" that leaves the ranks where he has his honored place and puts himself at the head of the procession and the paragraph, to swagger there in ostentatious display, a syntactical and strutting drum-major decked out in all his foolish finery. A.P. "hates" him. "Outside the Bible," he writes, "I hate to see a paragraph beginning with 'and.'" "It gives the impression of candy with your beefsteak." A.P. might excuse Arnold or Pater for beginning their paragraphs with 'and," "but it is ridiculous," he continues, "for amateur scribblers to affect the languid pose of those Olympians." The implication, therefore, in A.P.'s communication is that the use of the "paragraphic and" is a sign of weakness of style and of incongruity. "It gives the impression of candy with your beefsteak." Now by chance I have before me on my bookshelves among other volumes, Cardinal Newman's Idea of a University/, Thackeray's English Humorists, The Four George's and Lovel the Widower, George Eliot's liomola and Silas Marner, a one- volume edition, that of Pollard and Moss, of the complete works of Washington Irving, 11. G. Wells' The Soul of a Bishop, and William Lyon Phelps' The Advance of the English Novel. Newman, Thackeray, Eliot, Washington Irving, are classics. Wells is not by any means a model of style. But he writes plain, vigorous English. Professor Phelps is a critic of fine taste and discernment, and has the gift of elegant, clear and idiomatic expression. I have picked these books up at random and opened them at random just to see what they would reveal as to the paragraphic "and." I have glanced through every paragraph of Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. With the exception of two, perhaps three paragraphs, in which a dialogue or a conversation was continued, not a single paragraphic "and" occurred. In his History of New York, on the other hand, I have counted in a reading of two or three minutes as many as fifteen. On the whole, however, Irving seems to be relatively sparing in the use of the "and" to which A. P. has taken such a violent dislike. In Newman's Idea of a University, a model surely of all that is best in clear, elegant, idiomatic English, I have counted while rapidly turning over the leaves as many as twenty-six paragraphic "ands," many others, of course, escaping me. Thackeray, in the volume mentioned above, is more sparing of his paragraphic "ands," but he uses them not infrequently. In the first half of the work I have stumbled upon nine at least. In turning over the pages of Romola and Silas Marner I have met at least a good dozen of the conjunction outlawed by A.P. Mr. Wells is not afraid to use it when he likes. It occurs frequently in almost every part of The Soul of a Bishop, and Mr. Phelps employs it, but more sparingly, it must be confessed, as many as one hundred pages occurring without a single instance to be found.

In the face of these examples we think it would be unfair to excommunicate the “paragraphic and.” The very best usage of the language sanctions it. It can, of course, be abused, and be unnecessarily obtruded upon the reader, just as it is often over-emphasized in the pulpit and on the public platform. The subject-matter, the literary vehicle used, argument, oration, essay,

novel, the good taste of the writer must determine when it should be introduced. In argument, especially where the writer wishes to carry his thought forward, it has right of citizenship which cannot be denied.

Printer's Pie There will always be printer's, pie, and there will always be some one to worry us over it more or less. He who stands may fall, but we hope a fall such as Katharine Tynan tells us she had to complain of is far off: " ' Nor were English maids blind to his Irish beauty,' in an article of mine," she says, "came out: 'Nor were English made blinds,' etc." And again: "I have had a line of poetry ' Seeth he under the lone, awful sky ' reproduced as ' Seeth he down the lane, awful sly.' And ' A gold crown on your hair, my dear,' came out as 4 A gold crown on your chair,' And worst of all in a story for girls one who spoke of herself as a ' great ould botch ' appeared with the ' o' of the last word changed to 'i.' " Chinese Wisdom The following two little Chinese poems, written many centuries ago, are as applicable as ever to presentday human nature : On the Birth of His Son. Families, when a child is born, Want it to be intelligent; I, through intelligence, Having wrecked my whole life, Only hope the baby will prove Ignorant and stupid. Thus he will crown a tranquil life, By becoming a Cabinet Minister. The Red Cockatoo. Sent as a present from Annam A red cockatoo, Colored like the peach tree blossom, Speaking with the speech of men. And they do to it what is always done To the learned and eloquent. They took a cage and stout bars And shut it up inside. <X~>