Wanted: a civilized style

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Part of The Nation

Title: Wanted: a civilized style
Language: English
Year: 1945
Rights
Fulltext: WANTED: A Civilized Stgle Which is the more interesting, ·· more significant; more potent in· fluence in lffe: the systematic observation of things as they are, or the eager search • into things as they ~ught to be? The world we live in .tias accustomed us to regard the object of the first as practical fact, of the second as idle theory. At any rate the first can be carried on without the second, but the sec~nd necessarily builds upon the findings of the first. In other words, when we have exhausted ourselves in pursuing the facts we can pass un to consider what use we can or ought to make-of them. Indeed this is their whole significance for IJlOst practical people. Let us.ior instance be.practical in & literary sort of way. l'!et us take the matter of "style" that no lov.er -of ,li$etature. wlto now and flleta aits\ ·down. to the typewriter ~If:, very reilly outgrows: Is it more interesting to study what this or that .person's style is, than to consider what style ought to be? * * * By ANTONIO ESTRADA .. * * than does the style of poems, novels, essays, books of travel, descriptive criticism. "In the former case all that need be aimed at is lucid exposition of fact and vigorous reasoning. In the latter the fact to~ be stated, the truth to be .arrived at, being of a· more complex nature, ·involves a process a}:cin to that of the figurative arts. The stylist has here to produce the desired effect by suggestions of infinite subtlety, and to present impressions made upon his sensibility." Here we. have minute and accurate observation of fact, such as one might expect a psychologiSt of the latest American school to tabulate. Symonds. leaves us no doubt as to his being abreast of that science, for he says: ral run of such anthologies, collected for th'eir purple patches, and he evidently has an altogether different idea of excellence in prose: "Prose of its very nature ia longer than verse, and the virtues peculiar to it manifest themselves gradually. If the cardinal virtue of poetry is love, the cardinal virtue of prose is justice; and, whereas Jove makes you act and speak on the spur of the moment, justice needs inquiry, patience, and a control even of the noblest passions. "But English Prose, as Mr. Pearsall Smith presents it, is at the mercy of its passions and just only 'by accident. By justice ·here I do not mean justice only to particular people or ideas, but a habit of justice in all the processes of thought, a style tranquillized and a form moulded by that habit. ''The ma.ster of prose is not cold,, but he wilLnot let any word or image inflame him with a heat irrelevant to his purpose. Unhasting, unresting, he pursues it, subIn the exercise of style it is im- duing aU the riches of his mind to possible for anyone to transcend it. rejecting all beauties that are his inborn and acquired faculties not germane to it;. making his own of ideation, imagination, sense- beauty o~t of the very accomplishperception, verbal expression-just ment. of Jt, out _of the whole work as it is impossible in the exercise and its proportions, so that you of strength for an athlete to trans- . must read !o .the em;J. before you cend. the limits of his physical know that it is beautiful. structure, powers of innervation, "But he has his reward, for he dexterity, and courage." is trus.ted and convinces. as those On 'the other hand, Sir Arthur Clutton-Brock tells us a few things about prose and the nature of prose that serve for a hint. of what who are at the mercy of their own eloquence do not; and he gives a pleasure all tb.e greater for being hardly noticed." Dipping for the n~h time into one of those modern anthologies ~f . English ~P--rich quarries of styel-1 llappeiied upon two pieces that perfectly illustrate this contrast~between what is and what ought t~ be.. indfcatlng quite style ought to be, and he enforces clearly which ~roblem arouses the his own precepts with his own deeper intel'est .at least for the example. He is criticising Mr. many who are d~iving at practice., Pearsall SmJ~'s anthology of Eng'.!'his is an idea of prose as an achievement of civilization which if it is rarely . enough met with i~ England, where Sir Arthur was writing, is certainly · rarer in America,. and li.a,idly known at all in the Philippines. Yet, as he expounds· it, what an inspiring and potentially serviceable ideal it presents us with! This conception of style far outstrips the usual version of Buffon's 'le style c'est de l'homme meme, for it is capable of influencing not merely our way of speaking and writing, but also our way of judging and living. "Literary ·style," says John AddiftgtOn Symonds, ''·is more a matte.· of 861ltim.iint, emotion, involun- · tary habits of feeling ·and observing, constitutional synipathy with the world .and µien, tendencies of euriotity a~d liking, than of the pure intellect. The style of scientific works, affording little scope for the exercise of these psycholo. gieal element&, throws less light upon tbeir authors' temperament 18 lish Prose, . :which is like the gene. The NATION. If even a handful of educated much depends upon a wise decision people' were habitually _to practice and energetic action, the need for that way of expressing themselves JOme tranquillizing influence bethat "elicits reason and patience by displaying them", would not that make for clear-headedness in public opinion in the long run 'l comes acute, and the suggest:jon of some such device as is here propo~ed becomes almost a duty. CENTRAL STUDIO Art Center of P.........,y 531 Rizal Ave. And if by some freak of human rr~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!!:"I nature it were suddenly 'to be~ come fashionable to adopt that manner of address "which asl!umes that we do not wish to be tricked or dazzled" what a gain it would be both for ·our Press and Protect Your BABY! ·Enriched Tll\l··Tll\I for our Rostrum! Now available in popular Drug Stores · Manufactured by The trouble with the yellow press with which we have lately b~n overrun, is that it prevents (or Al\jADO A. SANTOS & . 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