16 
CONTRASTS IN ENGLISH PROSE. 
By Mr. A. G. GARDINER. = 28th January, 1902. 
Not the least part of the Englishman’s heritage is the instru- 
ment of Speech. Our language is a part of our national life. 
It has grown with our growth, and strengthened with our 
strength, and is a living record of our struggles and trials, of our 
hopes and fears, and of our aspirations and despairs. To keep 
“the well of English undefiled’’ is an object of no small 
importance. It was to be feared that the ‘‘ Press” is not with- 
out blame in accepting questionable phrases imported from 
across the Atlantic, such as ‘‘ Jones goes the whole hog,” 
«« Brown goes one better,’ and ‘‘ Too previous.”’ More care and 
attention should be paid to the cultivation of the “ pride of 
language.” The lecturer declined to attempt any definition of so 
elusive a thing as “ style,’’ which he considered was a question 
dependent on the temperament of the writer. 
The Prose of the Nineteenth Century is fuller, richer and 
more varied than that of any preceding period; but what has 
been gained in variety and colour, has been lost in simplicity and 
strength. Nothing in our language can surpass the simple 
beauty of the English translation of the Scriptures. 
As an example of lofty English prose, the lecturer quoted 
passages from Milton’s ‘‘ Areopagitica,’’ beginning : 
‘* Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rousing herself 
like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invisible locks: methinks I 
see her as an eagle, renewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled 
eyes at the full midday beam ; purging and unscaling her long-abused sight 
at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while the whole noise of timorous 
and flocking birds, with those also that love the twilight, flutter about, 
amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate 
a year of sects and schisms.”’ 
The question of comparison is of a two-fold character: one of 
individuals and another of periods. 
As an example of the easy style of English prose, the early 
essays of Lord Bacon cannot be surpassed, but he became more 
diffusive with advancing years. Every sentence being full of 
meaning ; as John Morley said of Tacitus: ‘‘He seeks to com- 
press a volume into a chapter, a chapter into a sentence, a 
sentence into a phrase, and a phrase into a word.” 
