Style?… Did you hear how he spoke to the chiefs? And of what use was it to him?
If I could speak like him, I should speak otherwise than he.
Away with conscientious language, away with considerateness, straightforwardness, plainness, simplicity, feeling; away with all that puts you in remembrance of Horace’s [[295]]“Justum et tenacem;” trumpets here, and the sharp rattle of kettledrums, whizzing of rockets, screeching of tuneless strings, here and there a true word sneaking in as contraband, under cover of so much drumming and so much trumpeting! Style?… He had style! He had too much soul to drown his thoughts in, “I have the honour to be,” and the “Right Honourable,” and the “respectfully giving in considerations,” that was the luxury of the small world in which he moved. When he wrote, something impressed you in the reading of it, which made you understand that there were clouds accompanying this thunderstorm, and that you did not hear the rattling of tin thunderstorm as in a theatre. When he struck fire from ideas, the heat of his fire was felt by all but born clerks, or Governors-General, or the writer of that most disgusting report about “tranquil tranquillity.”
And what was the use of it to him?… If I want to be heard, and, above all, understood—must I then write otherwise than he? But how, then?
Do you see, reader! I look for an answer to this “how,” and therefore my book is such a medley: it is a pattern-card, make your choice; afterwards I will give you yellow or blue or red, as you please.
Havelaar had already so often observed the Governor’s malady in so many sufferers, and often in anima vili, for there are analogical Residents’, Controllers’, Clerks’ maladies, that are in proportion to the first as the measles [[296]]to the small-pox, and finally, he himself had suffered from this malady; he had already so often observed this, that he knew the symptoms very well. He had remarked that the present Governor-General[4] had been less dizzy at the commencement of the malady than most others, and he concluded from this that the rest of the malady would likewise take another course. Therefore he feared to be the strongest, if at last he should have to come forward as the champion of the rights of the inhabitants of Lebak.[5] [[297]]
[1] A person in service of the Regent. [↑]
[2] The Dutch Government has its coffee-gardens. If a Regent encourages labour in those gardens, or better still, compels men and women to work for nothing in the government gardens,—these government gardens will produce much coffee, and the Regent receives a certain percentage, so much for every pical. [↑]
[3] Right Honourable is by no means a good translation of the Dutch “WelEdelGestrenge.” It is impossible to translate this into English, just as “Right Worshipful” could hardly be translated into Dutch without becoming ridiculous. [↑]