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Robert Louis Stevenson-Part2_Walter Raleigh(1861-1922)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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set himself laboriously and patiently to train his other faculty,



the faculty of style.

I. STYLE. - Let no one say that 'reading and writing comes by



nature,' unless he is prepared to be classed with the foolish

burgess who said it first. A poet is born, not made, - so is every



man, - but he is born raw. Stevenson's life was a grave devotion

to the education of himself in the art of writing,



'The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne,

Thassay so hard, so sharp the conquering.'



Those who deny the necessity, or decry the utility, of such an

education, are generally deficient in a sense of what makes good



literature - they are 'word-deaf,' as others are colour-blind. All

writing is a kind of word-weaving; a skilful writer will make a



splendid tissue out of the diverse fibres of words. But to care

for words, to select them judiciously and lovingly, is not in the



least essential to all writing, all speaking; for the sad fact is

this, that most of us do our thinking, our writing, and our



speaking in phrases, not in words. The work of a feeblewriter is

always a patchwork of phrases, some of them borrowed from the



imperial texture of Shakespeare and Milton, others picked up from

the rags in the street. We make our very kettle-holders of pieces



of a king's carpet. How many overworn quotations from Shakespeare

suddenly leap into meaning and brightness when they are seen in



their context! 'The cry is still, "They come!" ' - 'More honoured

in the breach than the observance,' - the sight of these phrases in



the splendour of their dramatic context in MACBETH and HAMLET casts

shame upon their daily degraded employments. But the man of



affairs has neither the time to fashion his speech, nor the

knowledge to choose his words, so he borrows his sentences ready-



made, and applies them in rough haste to purposes that they do not

exactly fit. Such a man inevitably repeats, like the cuckoo,



monotonous catchwords, and lays his eggs of thought in the material

that has been woven into consistency by others. It is a matter of



natural taste, developed and strengthened by continual practice, to

avoid being the unwitting slave of phrases.



The artist in words, on the other hand, although he is a lover of

fine phrases, in his word-weaving experiments uses no shoddy, but



cultivates his senses of touch and sight until he can combine the

raw fibres in novel and bewitching patterns. To this end he must



have two things: a fine sense, in the first place, of the sound,

value, meaning, and associations of individual words, and next, a



sense of harmony, proportion, and effect in their combination. It

is amazing what nobility a mere truism is often found to possess



when it is clad with a garment thus woven.

Stevenson had both these sensitive capabilities in a very high



decree. His careful choice of epithet and name have even been

criticised as lending to some of his narrative-writing an excessive



air of deliberation. His daintiness of diction is best seen in his

earlier work; thereafter his writing became more vigorous and



direct, fitter for its later uses, but never unillumined by

felicities that cause a thrill of pleasure to the reader. Of the



value of words he had the acutest appreciation. VIRGINIBUS

PUERISQUE, his first book of essays, is crowded with happy hits and



subtle implications conveyed in a single word. 'We have all

heard,' he says in one of these, 'of cities in South America built



upon the side of fiery mountains, and how, even in this tremendous

neighbourhood, the inhabitants are not a jot more impressed by the



solemnity of mortal conditions than if they were delving gardens in

the greenest corner of England.' You can feel the ground shake and



see the volcano tower above you at that word 'TREMENDOUS

neighbourhood.' Something of the same double reference to the



original and acquired meanings of a word is to be found in such a

phrase as 'sedate electrician,' for one who in a back office wields



all the lights of a city; or in that description of one drawing




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