Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-03-30

sr.B.N. Rowe is the Santa Ana agent Of
the HERALD.
something About Litcr"fb
style.
Our esteemed evening contempt
rary, the Express, quoting Monslgnor
Capel and the Sacramento RECORD
Union, enters a vigorous protest
aoainst the employment OF Dig
words" in any discussion OF pupnc
matters. The unnecessary employ
ment Of words, big or little, is to be
deprecated on all standards OF good
taste. The omission Of the merest
particle, whether it he an article or a
proposition, as fully destroys the
grace OF q sentence ~ any other mis-
adventure would, whether it involved
tho employment Of a big or a little
word. This talk about making 'he
short, Anglo-Saxon words measure
tho wisdom OF the world is AZ absurd
in the case Of Monsignor Capei as IL
was in the instance OF President
buchanan when he made the pre-
sanitation address at Georgetown Col
leee during his Presidential term.
He told the students that both Mr..
Clay and Mr.. Webster had always
chosen the shortest words they could
find 10 express their meaning. This
was not no, particularly in tho case OF
Mr.. Webster, who often adopted the
most sonorous of the Latinized words
embraced in the English language.
His celebrated apostrophe, ooh when
mine eyes are turned for the last
time" ETC., contains the most mani
fold syllable terms ever embodied IN
the composite English language. In
talking OF such matters DIR. Johnson's
Injunction, "clear your mind oil cant,
comes powerfully into play. what
the talker and writer of English needs
is to bear in mind that his vibrant
and magnificent language comprises
the spells of the tongues OF all ages,
and THAT such words should be used
as represent the melody and oxpan-
sion OF the tongue itself and OF the
ideas developed in the subject pre-
sented. Not even the veriest peasant
Of France would like to zee the Ian
quage of Corneile and Moliere re-
strlcted to the patois of a peasant oil the
Bordelaise or Normandy. Not even
the Yorkshire yokel, II his intelli-
Rencc could be exploited to the ex-
tent Of comprehending an abstract
idea, would like to see the dialect Of
his kind curtailed to the two hum
dred words which, Dickens says,
represent the full vocabulary oil the
poor fellows who live in the bcnighted
region which produced Charlotte
Heonte.
Macaulay, in his history oil Eng
land, says that the finest possibilities
of the English language are exempli-
fed in the poetry OF Milton and the
prose Of Edmund Burke. Milton had
ono moment OF emancipation from the
majestic, stilted and Latinized and
Grccoized style which characterized
him to the last. That was when he
wrote Comus, which might be fifty
ranged as companion piece to shak-
speare's immortal GAS You Like It,"
1t has the same airy grace, the same
resistless and enchanting spirit OF gal
lantry. When Milton became Pur-
itan he lost this knack, and his style
took on the sonorous, Latinizcd and
Grecoized majesty which has never
been surpassed on earth, in any Ian
guage, before or since his time.
Shakespeare, who possessed style
far more flexible and easy than Mil
toms, always awaited himself of any
words, derivative from any language,
that expressed his ideas. He was
fond Of alternating words of Latin and
Greek origin with those of the mono
syllable brevity Of Gurth, the Saxon
thrall Take, for instance, his de-
scription Of death,
40 rest In cold obstruction and to rot,
This sensible warm motion to become a
tnaada1 clod
Finally, to take Macsulay's esti-
mate Of Burke as the climax OF Eng
lish prose, what varied, flexible
and superb style we have, instinct
with Latinity and Grecoism, but abb
solutely incompatible = something
like the style OF Macaulay himself,
by the way.
No, the HERALD really can't endure
a conception OF a literary style which
would make Rasselas the etfusion oil
prig, Shakespeare an innovator,
Milton pompous phrase monger and
Addison pedantic scholastic. 1t
enters plea for varied and elastic
vocabulary. Let the Yorkshire yokel
enjoy his distinction of range OF
words which only embraces two hun
dred. For its part the HERALD do
mands the majestic diapason and
rhythm of words derivable from all
the languages OF earth. II the reader
or the nearer don't understand what
they mean let him learn. Excelsior
ought to be the impulse with those
who are poorly informed. The lit
erary world ought not to be shrunk
to their dimensions. The ill-informed
ought to be expanded to the measure
OF those who have caught the exquis-
lite signidcances OF a flexible and sym
pathetic vocabulary. Ii they can't
be that is their misfortune. They
ought to struggle against it and they
will. In really fine literary thing
what the uneducated man don't
know he ought to take for granted.
---
OK all grounds the present year
seems TO be specially suspicious for
California. The earth will, accord
ing to all appearances, be jocund
with crops in all the divisions of the
State. In addition, the low rates OF
fares and freights with the East must
be accepted by the devout as a CO.