sacrifice to the Graces, and to [Greek: sapheneia]--Clarity--first among
the Graces.

What am I urging? 'That Style in writing is much the same thing as good
manners in other human intercourse?' Well, and why not? At all events we
have reached a point where Buffon's often-quoted saying that 'Style is
the man himself' touches and coincides with William of Wykeham's old
motto that 'Manners makyth Man': and before you condemn my doctrine as
inadequate listen to this from Coventry Patmore, still bearing in mind
that a writer's main object is to _impress_ his thought or vision upon
his hearer.

'There is nothing comparable _for moral force_ to the charm of truly
noble manners....'

I grant you, to be sure, that the claim to possess a Style must be
conceded to many writers--Carlyle is one--who take no care to put
listeners at their ease, but rely rather on native force of genius to
shock and astound. Nor will I grudge them your admiration. But I do say
that, as more and more you grow to value truth and the modest grace of
truth, it is less and less to such writers that you will turn: and I say
even more confidently that the qualities of Style we allow them are not
the qualities we should seek as a norm, for they one and all offend
against Art's true maxim of avoiding excess.

And this brings me to the two great _paradoxes_ of Style. For the first
(1),--although Style is so curiously personal and individual, and
although men are so variously built that no two in the world carry away
the same impressions from a show, there is always a norm somewhere; in
literature and art, as in morality. Yes, even in man's most terrific,
most potent inventions--when, for example, in "Hamlet" or in "Lear"
Shakespeare seems to be breaking up the solid earth under our feet--there
is always some point and standard of sanity--a Kent or an Horatio--to
which all enormities and passionate errors may be referred; to which the
agitated mind of the spectator settles back as upon its centre of
gravity, its pivot of repose.

(2) The second paradox, though it is equally true, you may find a little
subtler. Yet it but applies to Art the simple truth of the Gospel, that
he who would save his soul must first lose it. Though personality
pervades Style and cannot be escaped, the first sin against Style as
against good Manners is to obtrude or exploit personality. The very
greatest work in Literature--the "Iliad," the "Odyssey," the
"Purgatorio," "The Temp