The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-12-04

than years of duplicity.
 A word now about national bias to those who have a Yeneration for die I ton and style. Assuredly there can be no quarrel with the taste for grace and elegance of speech. I am of opin- ion that one cannot say too well what i he has to say But 1t does not follow that the things best said and best writ ten are most studied. Words should serve the fact and not substitute them selves for it and make it forgotten in its establishment The greatest things are those which gain the most by be- ing said most simply, since thus they show themselves for what they are. You do not throw over them the veil, however transparent, of beautiful dis course, nor that shadow so fatal to truth called the writer's vanity. Moth ing so strong, nothing so persuasive. as simplicity There are sacred emotions, ] cruel griefs, splendid heroisms, pas I sionate enthusiasms, that a look, a movement. a cry, interprets better than beautifully rounded periods. The most precious possessions of the heart of
 
 simply. To be convincing thing must be true, and certain truths are more ] evident when they come in the speech of ingenuousness, even weakness, than when they fall from lips too well train ed or are proclaimed with trumpets. And these rules are good for each of us in his everyday life. No one can imagine what profit would accrue to his moral life from the constant obser- vation of this principle: Be sincere, moderate, simple in the expression of your feelings and opinions in private and public alike; never pass beyond bounds, give out faithfully what Is within you, and above all watch-that is the main thing.
 For the danger in fine words is that they live from a life of their own. They are servants of distinction that have kept their titles, but no longer perform their functions of which roy al courts offer us example. You speak well, write well, and all is said. How many people content themselves with speaking and believe that it exempts them from acting And those who lis- ten are content with having heard them. So it sometimes happens that life may in the end be made up of few well turned speeches. a few fine books and a few great plays. As for practic- ing what is so magfsterially set forth that is the last thing thought of. And if we pass from the world of talent to spheres which the mediocre exploit, there in a pellmell of confusion we see those who think that we are in the world to talk and hear others talk the great and hopeless rout of bab- blers, of everything that prates, bawls and perorates and, after all, finds that there isn't talking enough. They all forget that those who make the least noise do the most work. An engine that expends all its steam in whistling has nothing left with which to turn wheels. Then let us cultivate silence. All that we can save in noise we gain in power
 These reflections lead us to consider a similar subject, also very worthy of attention. I mean what has been call ed "the vice of the superlative" If we study the inhabitants Offa country we notice differences of temperament, of which the language shows signs. Here the people are calm and phleg- matc. Their speech is jejune, lacks color. Elsewhere temperaments are more evenly balanced. One finds pre- cision, the word exactly fitted to the thing. But farther on-effect of the sun, the air, the wine perhaps-hot blood courses in the veins, tempers are excitable, language Is extravagant, and the simplest things are said in the strongest terms.
 If the type of speech varies with eli mate, it differs also with epOchs. Con- pare the language, written or spoken, of our own times with that of certain other periods of our history. Under the old regime people spoke differently than at the time of the Revolution, and we have not the same language as the men of 1880, 184S or the second empire. h general, language is now charac- terized by greater simplicity. We no longer wear perukes, we no longer write in lace frills, but there is one significant difference between us and almost all of our ancestors, and it is the source of our exaggerations-ou nervousness. Upon overexcited nerv- ous systems and heaven knows that to have nerves is no longer an arfsto- cratic privilege-words do not produce the same impression as under normal conditions; and quite as truly simple language does not suffice the man of overwrought sensibilities when he tries to express what he feels. In private life, in public, in books. on the stage, calm and temperate speech has given place to excess. The means that novel; ists and playwrights employ to galva- nize the public mind and compel its at- tention are to be found again in their rudiments, in our most commonplace conversations, in our letter writing and, above all, in public speaking. Our performances in language compared to those of n man well balanced and se- rene are what our handwriting is com pared to that of our fathers. The fault is laid to steel pens. If only the truth were acknowledged Geese, then, could save us. But the evil goes deeper; 1t is in ourselves. We write like men possessed. The pen of our ancestors was more restful, more sure. Here we | face one of the results of our modern 1 life, so complicated and 30 terribly ex- | I--.,kl-.n .e nx.~ov Tt iaave9 ua fu,Da-