The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
These different types of structure may perhaps be illustrated by three
different books, all belonging to the intermediate ground between
science and art. I should say that Buckle's "History of Civilization,"
with all its wealth and vigor, is exceedingly loose-jointed in all its
logical structure, and also very defective in its literary structure,
although it happens to have an element of freshness which is rare in
such a work, and carries the reader along. Darwin's "Origin of Species"
is better; that has at the bottom a strong logic, whether conclusive or
otherwise, but is so rambling and confused in its merely literary
statement, that it does itself no justice. A third book, Huxley's
"Lectures," combines with its logic a power of clear and symmetrical
statement that gives it a rare charm, and makes it a contribution, not
to science alone, but to literature.
In what is called poetry, _belles-lettres_ or pure literature, the
osseous structure is of course hidden; and the symmetry suggested is
always that of taste rather than of logic, though logic must be always
implied, or at least never violated. In some of the greatest modern
authors, however, there are limitations or drawbacks to this symmetry.
Margaret Fuller said admirably of her favorite Goethe, that he had the
artist's hand, but not the artist's love of structure; and in all his
prose writings one sees a certain divergent and centrifugal habit, which
completely overpowers him before the end of "Wilhelm Meister," and shows
itself even in the "Elective Affinities," which is, so far as I know,
his most perfect prose work.
In Emerson, again, one observes a similar defect; his unit of structure
is the sentence, and the periods seem combined merely by the accident of
juxtaposition; each sentence is a pearl, and the whole essay is so much
clipped from the necklace; but it is fastened at neither end, and the
beads roll off.
Yet it is not enough for human beauty to possess symmetry of structure,
within and without: there must be a beautiful coloring also, wealth of
complexion, fineness of texture. So the next element of literary art
lies in the _choice of words_. Style must have richness and felicity.
Words in a master's hands seem more than words; he can double or
quadruple their power by skill in using; and this is a result so
delightful, as to give to certain authors a value out of all proportion
to their thought. There are books which are luxuries, _livres de luxe_,
whose pages seem builded of more potent words than those of common life.
Keats, for example, in poetry, and Landor in prose, are illustrations of
this; and perhaps the representative instance, in all English
literature, of the prismatic resources of mere words is the poem of "The
Eve of St. Agnes." But thus to be crowned monarch of the sunset, to
trust one's self with full daring in these realms of glory, demands
such a balance of endowments as no one in English literature save
Shakespeare has attained.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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