Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1892-10-20


,s,f- onsolousnsss Makes you POOR
writer and . bad speaker.
Richard Grant White writes: AS
10Th writing and speaking are the
expression OF thought through Ian
xuage, the capacity for the one,
Joined to the incapacity for the
other, Is naturally the occasion OF
remark, and has, / believe, never
been accounted for. ] think IL VIII
be found that consciousness, which
generally causes more or less embar-
rassment OF one kind or other, is at
the bottom Of this apparent incon-
gruity.
The man who writes In clear and
fluent style, but who, when he under
takes TO speak, more than to say yes
| or no or what he would'liket for din
ner. hesitates and utters confusion,
does so because he is made self-con-
scious by the presence Of Others when
he speaks, but gives himself uncon-
sciously to the expression Of his
thought when he looks only upon
the words which he is writing. He
who speaks with ease and grace, but
writes in a grabbed, involved style,
forgets himself when he looks at
Others, ana is occupied by himself
when he is alone. His consciousness
and the effort that he makesron the
one hand to throw it off, and on the
other to meet its demand upon him,
confuse his thoughts, which throng,
and jostle, and crash, instead or NOV
ing onward with one consent togeth-
er.
Mere consciousness has had much
to do with the charming style OF
many women's letters. Women's
style, when they write books, is gen,
orally bad, with all the varieties OF
badness; but their epistolary style Il
as generally excellent in all ways Of
excellence. A letter written by
bright, cultivated woman-and she
need not be a highly educated OF
much instructed women, bu'
merely one whose intercourse Is Will
cultivated people-and written mere
ly to tell you something that inter
ests her and that she wishes you U
know, with much care about VIVA
she says, and no care as to how sh'
SAYS 1t, will, in twelve cases out or
bakers dozen, be not only irreproach
ably correct in expression but yer.
charming.
Some literary women, though few
are able to carry this clear, fluent
idiomatic English style into thei
books. Mrs. Jameson, Charlott
Bronte, and perhaps George Eliot ar
prominent instances in point. Mrs
Trollope's book, "The Domestic Man
ners of the American" which mad
! her name known and caused 1t to h
detested, unjustly in this country,
written in this delightful style-easy
T flowing and clear, like a beautifr
stream, rejecting from its placi
surface wherever it passes, by addin
D in the reflection charm to the In
age which is not in the object, an
distorting only when 1t is dimpled Q
gayety or crisped by a flow OF SAITH
Q or a ripple OF humor. II is wort
! reading only for its style. 1t may
studied to advantage and emulate
: but not initiated, for all about
d that is worthy Of emulation is inin
y liable. Mr.. Anthony Trollope
Q mastery of our language was inhe
y tied, but he did not come into pc
session of quite all the maternal
tate.
n L say that Mrs. Trollope's book hi
: been unjustly censured because q
II her descriptions were true to lif
o and were evidently taken from LII
/ She described, however, only tn
s which struck her as peculiar, al
l. her acquaintance with the count
9 was among the most uncultivat
DeODle.