His labor kept him lean for twenty years; and many a time he learned how salt his food who fares upon another’s bread,––how steep his path who treadeth up and down another’s stairs. But Dante saw and conquered,––realizing what he had to do, knowing how to do it, being worthy of his work. Therefore, singly among authors, he deserves the epithet his countrymen apply to him,––divine.
“The Divine Comedy” is the supreme epic of the world. The supreme novel remains to be written. It is doubtful if human literary art may attain completeness more than once. But as our authors labor to embody truths of human life in arranged imagined facts, they should constantly be guided and inspired by the allurement of the ultimate ideal. The noblest work is evermore accomplished by followers of the gleam. Let us, in parting company, paraphrase the sense of a remark made centuries ago by Sir Philip Sidney,––that model of a scholar and a gentleman:––It is well to shoot our arrows at the moon; for though they may miss their mark, they will yet fly higher than if we had flung them into a bush.
First published in the Contemporary Review for April, 1885; and now included in Volume XXII of the “Thistle Edition”: Charles Scribner’s Sons.
“Mrs. Knollys” is now easily accessible in “The Short Story: Specimens Illustrating Its Development.” Edited by Brander Matthews. American Book Company, 1908.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. What is meant by style in literature?
2. Make three patterns of words,––the first notable for 226 sheer selection, the second notable for rhythm, and the third notable for literation.
3. Write a theme, containing approximately three hundred words, that shall be judged for its quality of style.