It has been hinted that the rhetorical, impassioned, and lofty styles
are in a measure dangerous. The natural corrective of that danger is
artistic _reserve_.
Reserve is a negative quality, and so it has not been emphasized by
writers on composition as it ought to be. But if it is negative,
it is none the less real and important, and fortunately we have in
Thackeray a masterly example of its positive power.
Originally reserve is to be traced to a natural reticence and modesty
in the character of the author who employs it. It may be studied,
however, and cultivated as a characteristic of style. As an artistic
quality it consists in saying exactly what the facts demand, no more,
no less---and to say no more especially on those occasions when most
people employ superlatives. Macaulay was not characterized by reserve.
He speaks of the Puritans as "the most remarkable body of men the world
ever produced." "Most" is a common word in his vocabulary, since it
served so well to round out the phrase and the idea. Thackeray, on the
other hand, is almost too modest. He is so afraid of saying too much
that sometimes he does not say enough, and that may possibly account for
the fact that he was never as popular as the overflowing Dickens.
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