That it is not so, however, will appear when the
last element of truth in style, that with which all others combine,
which includes and implies consistency with the author's self, with
his age and his country, is taken into account. Appropriateness of
treatment to subject it is which lies at the root of all controversy
on style: this is the last and the whole test. And the fact that none
other is requisite, or, more strictly, that all others are but
aspects of this one, will very easily be allowed when it is reflected
that the subject, to be of an earnest and sincere ideal, must be an
emanation of the poet's most secret soul; and that the soul receives
teaching from circumstance, which is the time when and place where.
This premised, it must next be borne in mind that the poet's
conception of his subject is not identical with, and, in the majority
of cases, will be unlike, his reader's. And, the question of style
(manner) being necessarily subordinate to that of subject (matter),
it is not for the reader to dispute with the author on his mode of
rendering, provided that should be accepted as embodying (within the
bounds of grammatical logic) the intention preconceived. The object
of the poet in writing, why he attempts to describe an event as
resulting from this cause or this, or why he assumes such as the
effect; all these considerations the reader is competent to
entertain: any two men may deduce from the same premises, and may
probably arrive at different conclusions: but, these conclusions
reached, what remains is a question of resemblance, which each must
determine for himself, as best conscious of his own intention.
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