59 



[Bache. 



as well as others of the ancients knew well, as the French of 

 modern times know and strive to practice, that it is in perfection 

 of form that literary as well as all other art chiefly and almost 

 wholly resides ; and in literature, nnlike other art, which is 

 limited, form includes color, and even the " concord of sweet 

 sounds," and all else that, from delicacy to robustness, through 

 human strength and weakness, appeals to the wide range of affec- 

 tions in the responsive heart of man. 



Whoso likes, in poetry or prose, unformed, elusive idea, that 

 sparkles evanescently with promise but half-redeemed in unco- 

 ordinated thought, either enjoys the contemplation of his own 

 profundity, not the author's w.ork, or else is himself so much poet 

 or reasoner that, from fitful gleams of light, as one may think 

 out a whole heaven, inspired by the droning from a stupid pulpit, 

 he shapes to suit his fantasy what, not the bard nor other writer, 

 but his unconscious self lends to the satisfaction of his soul. In 

 either case is self-analysis wanting, which would prove to such mis- 

 guided beings that works which so inspire are not of art, but of 

 art's inchoate suggestion ; a pleasant sketch perchance, but not 

 the finished picture, in which they themselves complete the task ; 

 for although in literature the delicately, not the mathematically ex- 

 pressed idea, combines the finest finish with its form, it is also 

 true that in it all should ever tend from airy nothing, not thither 

 to revert, or never issue. Admirably Browning says : 



" Fancy with fact is just one fact the more ; 

 To wit, that fancy has informed, transpierced, 

 Thridded and so thrown fast the facts else free, 

 As right through ring and ring runs the djerid 

 And binds the loose, one bar without a break." 



But, just as in all literary art the djerid, fancy, is needed truly 

 to bind fact together in all-inclusive bond, so also in all literary art 

 is needed the first of facts, the djerid, form, to " bind the loose," 

 in parts and whole, as one " without a break." 



