labour, Hard Labour? It is not a transference of words, but merely a variation, to write "penal servitude," or "treadmill," instead of "Hard Labour." The thought is the same; the transference of ideas in "this treadmill of an earth" is of the feeblest description; and the phrase is far less a metaphor than a use of uncommon words employed for the sake of variety-a device which is always weak.

§ 6. Foundations of Judgment. We have reached a point in our inquiry at which we might go forward or go back. For instance, we might begin to attach labels to our results, and to equip ourselves with some of the formulæ of criticism by which to praise or condemn the writers of prose and verse. Thus, the description of the herbmerchant in our first extract from Carlyle might be labelled "literary impressionism," because it selects for reproduction in print those particular features of the things seen, and those only, which are essential to the thought to be conveyed. As vivid a picture is drawn by a few words of the pen as by a few strokes of the pencil of Mr Phil May. And the phrase about the doghutch in the same extract might be labelled "literary realism," because there is no sign that the word has been selected according to any ideal standard. It is

"REALISM" AND "IDEALISM"

15

just taken as it comes, without reference at all to the considerations of literary dignity which would have led Macaulay, for example, to leave such a word aside. From that we might go on to discuss the literary merit of the realism which takes its words indiscriminately from the dialect of rustics and the slang of the barrack-room. We might ask if Mr Kipling's heroes, Mulvany, Learoyd, and Ortheris, talk literary English because their words are written in a story-book, and if the Scotch novelists of to-day are to be accounted masters of literature, as the Scottish poems of Burns are masterpieces. Or, again, keeping more strictly to poetry, we might take the two styles of Wordsworth, and lose ourselves in an argument about Wordsworth's realistic child who declared,

"At Kilve there was no weather-cock;
And that's the reason why,"

and his idealistic child, "trailing clouds of glory," and

"Moving about in worlds not realised."*

But, though it is easy to master the cant of criticism, and to ticket our specimens with high-sound

* See An Anecdote for Fathers and Ode on the Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood. In the first, as is implied in the text, the subject of early childhood is treated realistically, and in the second the treatment is idealistic.

and speaking and It will be wiser,

ing names, true judgment should rest on a deeper foundation. We have seen that the choice of words for writing is by no means a simple matter. We have seen enough to know that the gentleman was mistaken who discovered to his surprise that he had been talking prose all his life.* He had talked, but he had not talked prose, for the art of prose requires a style, or pen, writing are not the same. therefore, for us to go back to this original distinction. We started out with the intention of learning to become poets in the sense of reading poetry well. So far, all that we have learned is that the language of literature is different from that of speech, and that the use of uncommon words is not necessarily a sign of good style. We see, then, that a knowledge of words is the beginning of judgment in literature. In order to read well, we have to learn to recognise a simple and an ornate style, to know when uncommon words are effective or merely bombastic, and when the style which uses them is harmonious or merely startling. We cannot expect to learn all this at once. The cleverest critics differ in their judgment on some points. But a little reflection will help us to find our way. Suppose that you were going to write a book, and that a row of words was waiting in * Molière, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme, II., vi.

WORDS IN WAITING

17

your ante-room to apply for admission to the work. Take any list of words from a dictionary, and consider how you would deal with their claims. Here are fourteen from "A" :—

§ 7. Examination of Words.-(1) Amanuensis means a man who writes at the dictation of another, or who copies out what another has written. It is not a very high calling, and it is distinctly an ugly word. Literally, it means a "from-the-hander" (Latin, a, from, manu, the hand, ensis, adjectival termination), and unless you were drafting an advertisement for a clerk, or were writing a book on middle-class professions, you would politely tell that word that you had no use for its services.

(2) Amaranth means, literally, "unfading or unwithering." It was used by certain Greek writers as the name of a fancied flower which could not decay, and it comes to us laden with all the lovely associations of Wordsworth's "deathless flowers, from Paradise transplanted." But deathless flowers are not seen in an ordinary

B

country walk, and this word could only be employed appropriately in a passage dealing with the things of the imagination. You would, therefore, mark "amaranth" for selection if you were about to write a poem, or a piece of imaginative prose, in which a reference to the other world. could be tastefully introduced. The word is found, for example, in the "choric song" of Tennyson's poem, The Lotus-Eaters

"But, propt on beds of amaranth and moly."

(3) Amass is a verb meaning "to pile up." We may amass wealth, or amass experience, but in the ordinary uses of language a journeyman-builder does not amass bricks, nor a cardplayer counters, nor a child on the sea-shore grains of sand. That is to say, the word moves with a certain dignity; for more colloquial purposes, the verbs "heap" or

pile" would take its place. Such an insight into the rank of words can only be acquired by mixing with them freely, by studying their habits, and learning to feel with them. If a man accustomed to clean steam-engines were to apply for the post of an invalid's nurse, you would probably reject him. His rough hands, their traces of oil, and the general bearing of the applicant, would guide your decision. By much reading we learn to judge words as accurately as men, and we shall mark