HISTORY AND USAGE OF THE WORD 173 



matter and artistic embodiment, more intimate, more vitally 

 dependent upon the kindred essence of the two terms. 

 Neither form in carven stone and painted superficies, nor 

 sound in music, has the same mysterious relation to the 

 human consciousness, the same approximation to identity 

 with thought and feeling, the same diurnal and familiar 

 reciprocity with mental processes, as words have. Thought 

 is expressed, we say, in a statue or a picture or a symphony ; 

 but a poem is articulate thought. 



Continuing analysis upon this second line, we are met with 

 many uses of the word style, all of which indicate the belief 

 that it is an instrument to be employed at will, and an art to 

 be acquired by cultivation. Thus style is spoken of as the 

 power to express thought with polish, lucidity, correctness, 

 vigour, beauty. We distinguish the style proper to poetry, 

 rhetoric, argument ; to tragedy and comedy ; to history and 

 fiction ; to the eloquence of the pulpit, the senate and the 

 forum ; to scientific exposition and metaphysical speculation. 

 We talk of the grand style and the pedestrian style, the 

 epistolary style and the anecdotical style, the style of con- 

 versation and the style of description. In all the applications 

 of the term it is implied that a man of taste and ability will 

 modify his use of language to meet the special requirements 

 of the task proposed. He will have learned by study to 

 distinguish between different tones and values in the instru- 

 ment of speech, and will have acquired by exercise the power 

 of touching that mighty organ of expression to various issues. 

 In this way, style comes to be regarded as a branch of rhetoric, 

 capable of being reduced to rules, and within certain limits 

 capable of being taught. 



