200 NOTES ON STYLE 



style consists in the parsimony of the means employed, and 

 the manifold variety produced by the manipulation of those 

 means the feeling for exact values whereby simple words 

 are thrown into relief by juxtaposition and selection, the 

 justice of perception which discovers the right phrase and 

 sets it in precisely the right context, the strength which 

 comes from reserve, and the flexibility which is due to 

 unerring veracity of statement. In this way, some of the 

 effects which might seem to have been denied to the French 

 language effects of picturesque and coloured description, 

 effects of mystery, effects of aerial indistinctness and haunt- 

 ing sweetness are just those in which it is at present 

 unrivalled. 



'La nature de cette langue,' says Guy de Maupassant, 

 'est d'etre claire, logique et nerveuse.' It is the language 

 of logical precision, of lucidity and scientific accuracy, of 

 intelligence, curiosity, criticism, propriety. ' Elle ne se laisse 

 pas affaiblir, obscurcir ou corrompre.' It is the language 

 of aphorism, of epigram, of definition, of psychological dis- 

 crimination. Braced in the austere struggle after truth of 

 utterance, purged by the pursuit of exactitude, taught to be 

 satisfied with veracity of phrase, there is nothing subtle in 

 thought or evanescent in sentiment which escapes the grasp 

 of its fine nervous organ of expression. 



This makes French the perfect instrument of prose ; not 

 of sublime poetry, for that demands qualities which the 

 language has failed to develop; not, peradventure, of the 

 noblest oratory, for that requires a density and volume 

 incompatible with the transparency specific to French ways 

 of thinking ; but of written prose, inexhaustible in crisp 

 variety of rhythm and elasticity of phrase, never unmindful 

 of the laws which separate prose from metrical utterance. 



'Get art de la Prose fransaise,' exclaims Paul Bourget, 

 in a passage from which I have already quoted, 'heritage 

 magnifique de la grande civilisation romaine. Le jour ou 

 cet art disparaitrait, la conscience fra^aise serait bien malade, 

 car dans 1'ordre de Intelligence elle aurait perdu sa plus 

 indisputable supr6matie. Les langues se parlent sur toute 



