The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1886-03-11
The Classic Style.
There is no better illustration of the
.eSerYe the nassinnless transnarencv

There is no better illustration of the
reserve. the passionless transparency
and naiUete, of the classic style of mar
rative than that which is given us in the
Acts of the APOSTLES; not the work of a
recognized classic author, but beauti-
fully classic in its pure objectivity, its
absence of personal coloring. In that
wonderful narrative of Paul's shipwreck
she narrator closes his account of an
anxious night with these words: Then
fearing lest they should have fallen
upon rocks, they cast four anchors out
of the stern, and wished for the day."
Fancy modern writer dealing with
such q theme! How he would enlarge
on the racking suspense, the tortures of
expectation, endured by the storm-tossed
company through the weary hours of a
night which threatened instant destuc-
ton! How he would dwell on the mo-
mentary dread of the shock which should
shatter the fra1 bark and engulf the
devoted crew, the angry pillows hunger
ing for their prey, eyes strained to catch
the first glimmer of returning light, etc.
All which the writer of the Acts con-
veys in the single phrase, ''And wished
for the day
Clear, unimpassioned, impartial pre-
sentation of the subject, whether fact or
fiction, whether done in prose or verse,
is the prominent feature of the classic
style. The modern writer gives you not
SO much the things themselves as his
impression of them. You are compelled
to see them through his eyes: that is,
through his feelings and reflections.
The ancients present them in their own
light, without coloring. They would
seem to have possessed other powers of
seeing than the modern, who, as Jean
Paul says, stands with an intellectual
spyglass behind his own eyes. Certainly
they possessed the art of so placing their
object as not to have their own shadow
fall upon it.
The difference is especiallv noticeable
in poetry. where each style unfolds itself
more fully and both are perfected in
their several kinds Ancient poetry is
characterized by sharp delineations of
individual objects, modern poetry by
the color it gives to things and the SEN
timents it associates with them.
The healthy nature of the ancients
cared little for anything beyond the
visible world in which they moved. The
finer their organization, the clearer the
impressions which they received from
surrounding objects. The modern, es-
tranged from nature, is thrown back
upon himself; the finer his organization
the more feelingly he is affected by his
environment. The ancient lived more
in phenomena, the modern more in
thought Hence, as Schiller says, classic
poetry affects us through the medium of
facts. romantic through the medium of
ideas.
In the thought of the ancients-I
speak particularly of the Greeks-soul
and body, spiritual and material, were
not divided, but blended, fused, in one
consciousness, one nature, one man.
This identity of matter and mind which
they realized in their life is expressed in
all the creations of Grecian art
For us moderns this harmony is lost.
The beautiful equilibrium of matter
and spirit is destroyed. We are divided
within ourselves, our nature is rent in
twain. We have discovered that we ex-
list. We are become aware of spirit
and like children of larger growth
would pick the world to pieces to find
where it hides. To the Greeks the world
was fact, to us it is a problem. Where
they accepted, we analyze; where they
rested, we challenge and dispute; where
they lost themselves in contemplation,
we seek ourselves in reflection; where
they dreamed, we dream that we dream.
They enjoyed the ideal in the actual; we
seek it apart from the actual, in the
vague inane.-Frederic Henry Hedge,
fp March atlantic.