STYLE AND THE MAN 61 



He was not deficient in the larger art that knows 

 how to make a bygone age live agaia to the imagina- 

 tion. He himself seems to have deprecated his " big 

 bow-wow " style in comparison with the exquisite 

 touches of Jane Austen. But no fineness of work- 

 manship, no deftness of handling, can make up for 

 the want of a large, rich, copious human endowment. 

 I think we need to remember this when we compare 

 unfavorably such men as Dickens and Thackeray with 

 the cleverer artists of our own day. Scott makes 

 up to us for his deficiencies in the matter of style 

 by the surpassing human interest of his characters 

 and incidents, their relations to the major currents 

 of human life. His scenes fill the stage of history, 

 his personages seem adequate to great events, and 

 the whole story has a certain historic grandeur and 

 impressiveness. There is no mistaking a great force, 

 a great body, in literature any more than there is in 

 the physical world ; in Scott we have come upon a 

 great river, a great lake, a great mountain, and we 

 are more impressed by it than by the lesser bodies, 

 though they have many more graces and pretti- 

 nesses. 



Frederic Harrison, in a recent address on style, is 

 cautious in recommending the young writer to take 

 thought of his style. Let him rather take thought 

 of what he has to say ; in turning his ideal values 

 into the coin of current speech he will have an ex- 

 ercise in style. If he has no ideal values, then is 

 literature barred to him. Let him cultivate his sen- 

 sibilities; make himself, if possible, more quickly 



