regarded the style of Descartes as
one of the most remarkable, and above all the most original in the
language. There cannot be the slightest doubt in the mind of any one
historically acquainted with that language, and accustomed to judge
style critically, that the opinion is a thoroughly sound one. Of late,
however, there have been dissidents, and their opinion has been
strangely adopted by the latest English biographer of Descartes[274].
Controversy as a rule is out of place in these pages, but on this
particular point, involving as it does one of the most important
questions in French literary history--the proper distribution of the
epochs of style--an exception must be made. According to Mr. Mahaffy's
view it is Descartes' few letters to Balzac which have gained him a
reputation for style, but he is 'seldom more than clear and correct;' he
is 'seldom grand, not often amusing.' The temptation to enlarge on this
singular definition of style as that which is grand or amusing must be
resisted. Those who have followed the foregoing pages will perceive
that the refusal to recognise in a writer who is 'seldom more than clear
and correct' (Descartes is a great deal more than this, but no matter)
the characteristics of a master of style arises from ignorance of what
the characteristics and drawbacks of French style had hitherto been.

Prose style may be divided, as conveniently as in any other way, into
the style of description or narration, and the style of discussion or
argument. The former deals with the imagination, with the passions, with
outward events, with conversation; the latter with the reason only. The
former propounds images, the latter ideas. The former constructs a
picture, the latter reduces words to their simplest terms as symbols of
thought. French had been making very rapid progress in the former
division of style, though there was much left to be done; in the latter
it was yet entirely at its rudiments. Before Descartes there are three
masters of this latter style, and three only, Rabelais, Calvin, and
Montaigne. There is little doubt that Rabelais might have anticipated
Descartes, had it not been for the fact, first, that, except on rare
occasions, he chose to wrap himself in the grotesque; and, secondly,
that he came before the innovations of the Pleiade had enriched the
language, and the reaction against the Pleiade had pruned off the
superfluity of richness. Calvin was also exposed to this second
dra