STYLE AND THE MAN 77 



the authors he had read. But now his fruit has ma- 

 tured and it has mellowed ; it has color and flavor ; 

 and his conversation abounds in wisdom. 



TI 



The standard of style of the last century was more 

 aristocratic than is the standard of to-day. The im- 

 portant words with Hume, Blair, Johnson, Boling- 

 broke, as applied to style, were elegance, harmony, 

 ornament ; and the chief of these was elegance : the 

 composition must make the impression of elegance, 

 as to-day we demand the impression of the vital and 

 the real. Even the homely is more suited to the 

 genius of democracy than is the elegant. Perhaps the 

 word is distasteful to modern ears from its conven- 

 tional associations or its appropriation by milliners 

 and dressmakers. One would not care to write in- 

 elegantly, but would rather his page did not suggest 

 the word at all, as he would have his home or his 

 dress suggest the quieter, humbler, more serviceable 

 virtues. In the old story of Bruce's saying, the style 

 may be said to be homely. " I doubt I have killed 

 the comyn." " Ye doubt ? " replies Kirkpatrick ; 

 " I mak siccar." Hume puts this into elegant lan- 

 guage in this wise : " Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick, one 

 of Bruce's friends, asking him soon after if the traitor 

 was slain, ' I believe so,' replied Bruce. ' And is 

 that a matter,' cried Kirkpatrick, ' to be left to con- 

 jecture ? I will secure him.' " This is polite prose, 

 dressed-up prose, but its charm for us is gone. 



