CHAPTER XII.
HARMONY OF STYLE:
Irving and Hawthorne.
A work of literary art is like a piece of music: one false note makes
a discord that spoils the effect of the whole. But it is useless to
give rules for writing an harmonious style. When one sits down to write
he should give his whole thought and energy to expressing himself
forcibly and with the vital glow of an overpowering interest.
An interesting thought expressed with force and suggestiveness is worth
volumes of commonplaces couched in the most faultless language.
The writer should never hesitate in choosing between perfectness of
language and vigor. On the first writing verbal perfection should be
sacrificed without a moment's hesitation. But when a story or essay has
once been written, the writer will turn his attention to those small
details of style. He must harmonize his language. He must polish.
It is one of the most tedious processes in literature, and to the novice
the most difficult on which to make a beginning. Yet there is nothing
more surely a matter of labor _and_ not of genius. It is for this that
one masters grammar and rhetoric, and studies the individual uses of
words.
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