OUR FACILE MASTERY OF ENGLISH 1 3 



well as effective in presentation ; and he tells us how he fashioned his 

 style on The Spectator, reading the papers, making summaries of them, 

 rewriting them and even turning them into verse to be reconverted 

 into prose. But the question is whether the experience of such men 

 as Huxley, Stevenson, Lincoln and Franklin is really pertinent in 

 this precocious period. 



Furthermore, it is undeniable that after traversing the long and 

 laborious path advocated by the antiquarians a man may still have no 

 real message for his fellows. No "imprisoned splendor" can escape 

 to the world without, unless the splendor has some way or other 

 come to exist within. And so often the great masters have attained 

 to their treasure of wisdom and sympathy by treading some via 

 dolorosa, that we think of their sufferings as imparting eloquence 

 directly to their lips rather than developing the greatness of soul and 

 kindness of heart which ultimately find expression for our strengthen- 

 ing or solace. Accordingly, the progressive members of the younger 

 generation, realizing the tremendous formative power of suffering and 

 other emotions, have not failed to throw themselves in the way of all 

 possible experiences. But the easy sacrifice does not always seem to 

 produce the superhuman result of which the devotee had dreamed, 

 until one begins to question how far it is possible to make merit by 

 immolation on any other altar than that of human duty and daily 

 service. The experience-hunter and the emotion-monger pay a 

 terrible price in the health of the soul, and with it they purchase the 

 shadow of a dream. 



Even before Horace penned his graceful precepts or Plato set forth 

 his profound doctrines, it was true that a man must have something 

 to say if he was to be heard. But withal, when we insist that a writer's 

 message is the great factor, we do not escape the fact that he is judged 

 largely by his success in delivering it; and it often happens that the 

 form of the message is a part of the message. 



Ill 



Our facile mastery of English on the side of appreciation as distin- 

 guished from expression must be dismissed with a few words. It 



