Irish Jesuit Province

The Charm of StyleAuthor(s): William SuttonSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 127 (Jan., 1884), pp. 32-34Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20497086 .

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32 The Charm of Style.

In that stable cold and lone There shines an orb so bright,

The glory of the noonday sun Is nothing to its light.

All Bethlehem seems on fire, From the stable comes the flame,

'Tis a star which the Eternal Sire Has dropped upon the beam.

I'm a poor brown gipsy-boy, Who comes from a distant land,

With a heart brimful of joy, And a

gift-bird in my hand.

I from Galicia linen bring. To dross the new-born child,

And at his feet myself I fling And gaze upon his face so mild.

To this crib the children bring Of their tiny stores a part

I am little and have nothing, I will give him my whole heart.

THE CHARM OF STYLE. BY RV. WILAM SUTTON, 8.J.

S TYLE to be good must be interesting. The way to become inte resting as a writer is by reading, observation, thoughtfulness and

practice. Ability and knowledge will not make us interesting writers, though they make us interesting talkers. It is much easier to speak so as to interest than to do the same by writing, and it is much easier to listen than to read. Many things help to set off the speaker which are wanting when we read what he has said, and thoughts come while we speak which we cannot summon from the vasty deep when we sit down to write.

Reading supplies knowledge of facts and principles expressed and adorned by literary art. Our minds acquire from it some power and

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The Charm of S tyle. 33

inclination to similar expression. But if we do not observe while we read, although we may read with attention, we shall not derive from our reading at all the same help towards becoming interesting writers, as we should if we cultivated the habit of what may be called reflex reading. When we read attentively, we are wholly sunk in the facts, fancies, and principles of the author; when we read in a reflex

manner, we not only feed our minds on his facts, fancies, and prin ciples, but we observe how he expresses them. But to gain still more from our reading, we must make it, moreover, thoughtful reading, by pausing from time to time, and exacting an account from ourselves of what we have learnt and how it was expressed. In this way we get at the secret of the charm of style, and extract from the great masters of literary expression pleasure and profit in a rare degree. It enables us, too, to compare the different styles of authors and of kinds of writing, poets, orators, historians, essayists. It is very valuable in opening our eyes to the differences of the genius of various languages, in syntax, idiom, and elegance; how and why what is correct and beau tiful in one-for example, Latin-is in English faulty and uncouth, or inadmissible. If we wish to write imitations of an author, or to model

our style upon his, or if we wish, as we all must, that our style should be influenced and improved by the best writers, it is not easy to see

what could be a better preparation and means for these purposes. This practice of thinking over our reading shoulld be used not only intermittently while we read, but in our walks and spare time, when

we are not otherwise employed. Nothing better can be done to deve lope thoughtfulness and ful flavour for our style. Thinking over the facts of the physical world produces on the mind, according to its inquiring instinct, knowledge of general causes; pondering over in stances of style reveals the natural and unchangeable laws, harmony

with which, be it conscious or unconscious, renders literary work enduringly and universally interesting, and of such flavour that it will still please though read for the tenth time. To be permanently inte resting, writing must be natural. " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." But intellectual pleasure also requires the elements of surprise. Addison says that fine writing consists of sentiments which are natural without being obvious. The habit of thoughtful ness spoken of is an infallible method of discovering what is natural without being obvious in sentiment. And thus the most exquisite surprise is enjoyed by the mind, which consists in seeing that to be necessarily true which on the surface seems otherwise, or which, deeply true and interesting as it is, we never thought of before, or, as very often happens, in a vague and inarticulate manner.

No exercise, no art. To write well riuch must be written. There never were such favourable times for skilled writers as the present. The Times, some years ago, said that skilled writing was now as

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34 De Profundis

marketable, and more so, than cotton. Fame, the last infirmity of nobl& minds, ubiquitously and obsequiously attends, in varying degrees, the utterer of thoughts that breathe and words that burn. Public spirit, patriotism, scholarship, science, art, philanthropy, are pre eminently promoted by writing. In the tremendous intellectual conflict raging between Faith and Scepticism, writers, that will please, that will teach, that will move, are imperatively demanded by the interests of true Religion.

DE PROFUNDIS.

BY REV. ARTHUR RYAN.

OUT of the deep, 0 Lord, I weep; 0 God of mercy, hear!

To this my cry vouchsafe, lost High, To lend a pitying ear.

If Thou recall the sinner's fall, Ah, Lord! who shall be free

From stain and flaw ? Yet for Thy law My spirit trusts in Thee.

My hope is sure, my heart secure, Resting upon His word;

From earliest light to darkest night Doth Israel wait his Lord.

For at his side, in plenteous tide, Redemption's stream begins,

And Israel's God, in his own blood Shall wash him from his sias.

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