What signifies that he trips and stammers; that
his voice is harsh or hissing; that this method or his tropes are
inadequate? That message will find method and imagery, articulation
and melody. Though he were dumb, it would speak. If not,--if there be
no such God's word in the man,--what care we how adroit, how fluent,
how brilliant he is?
It makes a great difference to the force of any sentence, whether there
be a man behind it, or no. In the learned journal, in the influential
newspaper, I discern no form; only some irresponsible shadow; oftener
some monied corporation, or some dangler, who hopes, in the mask and
robes of his paragraph, to pass for somebody. But, through every clause
and part of speech of a right book, I meet the eyes of the most
determined of men: his force and terror inundate every word: the commas
and dashes are alive; so that the writing is athletic and nimble,--can
go far and live long.
In England and America, one may be an adept in the writing of a Greek
or Latin poet, without any poetic taste or fire. That a man has spent
years on Plato and Proclus, does not afford a presumption that he holds
heroic opinions, or undervalues the fashions of his town.
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