The word is derived from the instrument stilus, of metal, wood, or ivory, by means of which, in classic times, letters and words were imprinted upon waxen tablets. By the transition of thought known as metonomy the word has been transferred from the object which makes the impression to the sentences which are impressed by it, and a mechanical observation has become an intellectual conception. The energy of a deliberate writer would make a firm and full impression when he wielded the stylus. A scribe of rapid and fugitive habit would press more irregularly and produce a less consistent text. The varities of writing induced by these differences of temperament would reveal the nature of the writer, yet they would be attributed, and with justice, to the implement which immediately produced them.
Every style is a means of insisting on something.
Our perception of the style of a given work of art is always charged with an awareness of the work'shistoricity, its place in a chronology. Style belongs to the world of the profane, while Form is a pretender to the altar of the sacred. Penny Benda Le style c'est l'homme meme. You wouldn't say an axe handle has style to it. But it has no style because it has no mistakes.