STYLE AND THE MAN 75 



any poem since Keats's " Ode to a Nightingale " 

 struck the note firmly and surely ? 



V 



I have often asked myself why it is that the in- 

 terviewer will sometimes get so much more wisdom 

 out of a man, and so many more fresh and enter- 

 taining statements — in short, so much hetter liter- 

 ature — than the man can get out of himself. Is 

 it because one's best and ripest thoughts rise to the 

 surface, like the cream on the milk, and does the 

 interviewer simply skim them off ? Maybe, in writ- 

 ing, we often dip too deep, make too great an effort. 

 Interviews are nearly always interesting, — much 

 more so than a formal studied statement by the in- 

 terviewed himself. Many a piece of sound, excellent 

 literature has been got out of a man who had no 

 skill at all with the pen. His spoken word is vital 

 and real ; but in a conscious literary effort the fiie 

 is quenched at once. Hence the charm of letters, 

 of diaries, of the simple narrations and recitals of 

 pioneers, farmers, workers, or persons who have no 

 conscious literary equipment. Who would not rather 

 read a bit of real experience of a soldier in battle, 

 such as a clever interviewer could draw out of him, 

 than to read his general's studied account of the 

 same engagement ? " To elaborate is of no avail," 

 says Whitman. " Learned and unlearned feel that it 

 is so." Only the great artist can rival or surpass the 

 sense of reality we often find in common speech. Set 

 a man to writing out his views or his experience and 



