6. Traces, indeed, of the peculiar character of Milton may be found in all his works, but it is most strongly displayed in the Sonnets. Those remarkable poems have been undervalued by critics who have not understood their nature. They have no epigrammatic point. There is none of the ingenuity of Filicaja in the thought, none of the hard and brilliant enamel of Petrarch in the style. They are simple but majestic records of the feelings of the poet, as little tricked out for the public eye as his diary would have been. A victory, an expected attack upon the city, a momentary fit of depression or exultation, a jest thrown out against one of his books, a dream which for a short time restored to him that beautiful face over which the grave had closed forever, led him to musings which, without effort, shaped themselves into verse. The unity of sentiment and severity of style which characterize these little pieces remind us of the Greek Anthology, or perhaps still more of the Collects of the English Liturgy. The noble poem on the Massacres of Piedmont is strictly a collect in verse. MACAULAY: Milton. Macaulay explains the nature of Milton's sonnets showing what they are not, what they are, what they contain (parts), and finally what they are like. This paragraph offers a neat and serviceable form of exposition and besides deserves high praise as good criticism. Give a like criticism of : The stories of Cooper. Subjects Macaulay's Lays of Ancient Rome. The monuments or buildings of a city. A student's room. 7. A great author, Gentlemen, is not one who has merely a copia verborum, whether in prose or verse, and can, as it were, turn on at his will any number of splendid phrases and swelling sentences; but he is one who has something to say and knows how to say it. I do not claim for him, as such, any great depth of thought, or breadth of view, or philosophy, or sagacity, or knowledge of human nature, or experience of human life, though these additional gifts he may have, and the more he has of them the greater he is; but I ascribe to him, as his characteristic gift, in a large sense the faculty of Expression. He is master of the two-fold Logos, the thought and the word, distinct, but inseparable from each other. He may, if so be, elaborate his compositions, or he may pour out his impro visations, but in either case he has but one aim, which he keeps steadily before him, and is conscientious and single-minded in fulfilling. That aim is to give forth what he has within him; and from his very earnestness it comes to pass, that, whatever be the splendor of his diction or the harmony of his periods, he has with him the charm of an incommunicable simplicity. Whatever be his subject, high or low, he treats it suitably and for its own sake. He writes passionately, because he feels keenly; forcibly, because he conceives vividly; he sees too clearly to be vague; he is too serious to be otiose; he can analyze his subject, and therefore he is rich; he embraces it as a whole and in its parts, and therefore he is consistent; he has a firm hold of it, and therefore he is luminous. When his imagination wells up, it overflows in ornament; when his heart is touched, it thrills along his verse. He always has the right word for the right idea, and never a word too much. If he is brief, it is because few words suffice; if he is lavish of them, still each word has its mark, and aids, not embarrasses, the vigorous march of his elocution. He expresses what all feel, but all cannot say; and his sayings pass into proverbs among his people, and his phrases become household words and idioms of their daily speech, which is tessellated with the rich fragments of his language, as we see in foreign lands the marbles of Roman grandeur worked into the walls and pavements of modern palaces. - NEWMAN: Literature. Newman explains what a great author is not, then what he is and does, and at the last uses a comparison showing what the author's language is like. Subjects Explain by contrast, effects, and comparison: A good teacher. A successful missionary. A poor speaker. A great president. An enterprising business man. A wide-awake salesman. A mother. 8. No author or man ever excelled all the world in more than one faculty and as Homer has done this in invention, Virgil has in judgment. Not that we are to think Homer wanted judgment, because Virgil had it in a more eminent degree; or that Virgil wanted invention, because Homer possessed a larger share of it. Each of these great authors had more of both than perhaps any man besides, and are only said to have less in comparison with one another. Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist. In one we most admire the man, in the other the work. Homer hurries and transports us with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a boundless overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a gentle and constant stream. When we behold their battles, methinks the two poets resemble the heroes they celebrate Homer, boundless and irresistible as Achilles, bears all before him, and shines more and more as the tumult increases; Virgil, calmly daring like Aeneas, appears undisturbed in the midst of the action; disposes all about him and conquers with tranquillity. And when we look upon their machines, Homer seems like his own Jupiter in his terrors, shaking Olympus, scattering the lightnings, and firing the Heavens: Virgil, like the same power in his benevolence, counselling with the gods, laying plans for empires, and regularly ordering his whole creation. : POPE: Preface to Iliad. Pope gives here a good example of just criticism. The exposition tells what each poet is, what he does, and what he is like. The parallelism and contrast give point and interest to the passage. Such parallel handling must be used with caution. The demand for. points of resemblance or contrast often leads to a forcing of the truth, and the evident art rapidly deteriorates into artificiality. "Methinks" is now antiquated, and “machines" is rare in the sense of preternatural agents of plays or stories. Subjects Give a parallel exposition of: Thackeray and Dickens. Longfellow and Tennyson. Iliad and Odyssey. Any two political parties, societies, automobiles, etc. 9. But the more favorite game is the national one of Mora, which the Italians pursue with surprising ardor, and at which they will stake everything they possess. It is a destructive kind of gambling, requiring no accessories but the ten fingers, which are always I intend no pun at hand. Two men play together. One calls a number say the extreme one, ten. He marks what portion of it he pleases by throwing out three or four, or five fingers; and his adversary has, in the same instant, at hazard, and without seeing his hand, to throw out as many fingers, as will make the exact balance. Their eyes and hands become so used to this, and act with such astonishing rapidity, that an uninitiated bystander would find it very difficult, if not impossible, to follow the progress of the game. The initiated, however, of whom there is always an eager group looking on, devour it with the most intense avidity; and as they are always ready to champion one side or the other in case of a dispute, and are frequently divided in their partisanship, it is often a very noisy proceeding. It is never the quietest game in the world; for the numbers are always called in a loud sharp voice, and follow as close upon each other as they can be counted. On a holiday evening, standing at a window, or walking in a garden, or passing through the streets, or sauntering in any quiet place about the town, you will hear this game in progress in a score of wine-shops at once; and looking over any vineyard wall, or turning almost any corner, will come upon a knot of players in full cry. It is observable that most men have a propensity to throw out some particular number oftener than another; and the vigilance with which two sharp-eyed players will mutually endeavor to detect this weakness, and adapt their game to it, is very curious and entertaining. The effect is greatly heightened by the universal suddenness and vehemence of gesture; two men playing for half a farthing with an intensity as all-absorbing as if the stake were life. DICKENS: Pictures from Italy. Dickens offers an explanation of a simple game, which may serve as a model for more complicated games. The following outline of the passage shows how the writer gains clearness through order, and interest through the novel aspects of the game. Game (general characterization, requisites, process): Qualities (speed, partisanship, noise): Occurrence (place of observer, place of players): Special features (detection of propensity, vehemence). Explain for a stranger: Any other sport. Subjects The most interesting game of younger days. CHAPTER VII ARGUMENTATION 48. Argumentation proves that the predicate of a proposition is truly asserted of the subject. Clearness is the essential requisite of argumentation. Have a definite idea of all the words in the proposition and of what is to be proved; keep the arguments under distinct heads and arrange them usually in the order of their strength. Interest must be aroused by liveliness of style, by specific instances, by apt comparisons, by sharp contrasts, and by other means illustrated in the exercises. I. Expository Argumentation 49. Prove the predicate belongs to the subject by an explanation of the terms (argumentation by exposition). As a picture of a place or of an event may be enough of itself to justify the statements: the place is beautiful; the event is sad; so a simple description or narrative will at times prove the truth of a proposition. In like manner a definition of the terms of the axiom, the whole is greater than any of its parts, shows that the predicate is true of the subject. EXERCISE 22 1. The situation which Pitt occupied at the close of the reign of George the Second was the most enviable ever occupied by any public man in English history. He had conciliated the king; he domineered over the House of Commons; he was adored by the people; he was admired by all Europe. He was the first Englishman of his time, and he had made England the first country in the world. The "Great Commoner," the name by which he was often designated, might look down with scorn on coronets and garters. |