Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1890-04-04
DESBRBT EVENING NEWS.
WHAT Is STYLE,

Style is the invisible wind through
whose influence "the lion on the
flag" Of the Persian poet s'moves
and marches." The lion Of sssoul,'
may be painted ever so deity, with
never 50 much expression, indivi-
dual feeling, picturesqueness,e energy,
charm; 1t will not move and march
save through the rhythmic waving
influence of style. Nor is style
necessarily the grand style, as
Arnold seems to imply in calling il
"a peculiar recasting and heighten-
ing, under a certain condition Of
spiritual excitement, Of what a man
has TO say in such a manner as TO
add dignity and distinction TO ito
Perhaps the most explicit examples
Of pure style owe their production to
spiritual coolness; and, in any event,
the word ''peculiar' in a definition
begs the question. Buffen is Mt once
Juster anu more difinite in saying:
"Style Is nothing other than
the order and movement which we
put into our thoughts" 1t is singu-
lar that this simple and lucid utter
ance Of Button should have been 20
little noticed by those who have
written In English on style. Eng
lish writ=rs-like Mr.. Hamerton.
for example, who snubs VI. Charles
Blanc as ridiculous" for talking
about 'te style" which he declares
to be simply ''individuality''-have
apparently misconceived, in very
curious fashion, Buttons other re-
mark, sic style c'est thonlnle;" by
which aphOrism Button merely
meant that a mans individual mar
ner depends on his temperament,
his character, and which he, OF
course, was very fur from suspecting
woald ever be taken for a definition.
Following Bufion's idea of "order
and movement" we may say, per
haps, that style results from the
preservation in every part Of some
sense Of the form Of the whole. II
implies n sense OF relations as well
as Of statement IL is not mere tx
preston Of a thought in a manner
peculiar 10 the artist lin words,
color, marble, what notl, but il Is
such expression penetrated with
both "Reminiscences and anticipation.
IL is, indeed, on the contrary,
very nearly the reverse of what
we mem by expression, which
Is mainly a matter o.
personal energy. Style means
correctness, precision, that feeling
for the ensemble ON which an inhar-
monious detail jars. Expression
results from a sense Of the value OF
the detail. II Walt Whitman, fol-
example, We're what his admirers
defective sense Of style fancies him,
he would be expressive. II French
plastic art had as little expression as
its censors assert, it would still illus.
trate style-thequality which modi-
fies the native and Apostle form Oi
the concrete individual thing with
reference to what has preceded and
what is to follow it, In a word,
whose effort Is to harmonic the OBJ
ject with its environment. When
this environment Is heightened,
and universal instead Of logical and
particular, We have the ''grand
styles" but we have the grand style
generally in poetry, and to he sure OF
style at all, prose would certainly be
suspicious Of the ''sOuP' and '1spe-
cific personality'' which tend 70
make it poetic and individual.
And really this common confusion
Of style with penSonality-which
latter is q poetic factor in lite
rature-has not only led to the
amount Of poetic prose we have that
Is bound TO perish because il is not
the happiest expression Of the writ
er's thought; because, at best, as
Arnold remarked OF one of Mr..
Ruskin's rhapsOdies, "what he is
there attempting he will never, ex-
cept in poetry, be able to accomplish
to his own entire satisfaction" Ii
has also tended TO prevent the de-
velopment Of pure prose -prose like
Swift's and Thackeray's-by Oh
scuring the merits OF such prose.
Salience, idiOsyncrasy, color, feel
ing have, on the one hand, been
supposed necessary by every writer
DESTROYS Of cultivating style-qualit
ties which are really hostile TO style
in prose, though in verse metrical
restrictions and opportunities sup
ply TO them just the element that i'm
prose they lack. On the other hand
Buttons "Order and movement
have been quite forgotten.-Scr6-
neT's Magazine for hpTtk.