ARNOLD'S VIEW OF EMEESON AND CAELYLE 147 



which he imparted to nearly everything he wrote. 

 A man's use of language reveals the very fibre and 

 texture of his mind. Silk is silk and hemp is 

 hemp, and the hand knows the difference wherever 

 it touches them ; but in literature the same words are 

 silk or hemp according to the mind that uses them. 

 Emerson's page nearly always makes the impression 

 of this finer and more precious quality, and, what- 

 ever may be its defects, belongs to literature pure 

 and simple. 



Probably the best test of good prose is this: It 

 is always creative; it begets in the mind of the 

 reader a deep and pervading sense of life and real- 

 ity. Now that Arnold is gone, how many writers 

 of creative prose are there in England ? Now that 

 Emerson is gone, how many are there in America 1 

 Is Mr. Gladstone's prose creative? Far from it, 

 I think. Is Mr. Euskin's? With all his bril- 

 liancy, I think Euskin lacks the creative touch. 

 Emerson falls short of it many times, but at his best 

 the creative power of the best prose was assuredly 

 his. He often had that felicity of utterance that 

 diffuses such light and joy in the mind. 



The greatness of his work consists in the meas- 

 ure of pure genius and of inspiration to noble and 

 heroic conduct which it holds. As a writer he had 

 but one aim, namely, to inspire, to wake up his 

 reader or hearer to the noblest and the highest 

 there was in him; and it was no part of his plan to 

 enter into competition with the Addisonian writers 

 for the production of perfect literary work, — perfect 



