Page:Men of Letters, Scott, 1916.djvu/241

215 THE ART OF MRS. MEYNELL 215 protected from anything worldly or profane. But Mrs. Meynell's sentences keep their purity whilst passing eagerly about the earth, and their words are drawn from many dialects and occupations. She writes on many subjects in this book'^ — on sleep and laughter and dress, on toys and flowers, on hills and books and cities ; and it is among these things, undis- dainfuUy, delightedly alive, that her phrases keep their footing so fastidiously — seeing and showing us only beauty, yet blinding us to nothing — stooping to play with children, mimicking their mimic talk, break- ing off into bright raillery or mockery — yet always maintaining a poise, a place, a pure composure, and always preserving the spirit of the prose from any wrong. Seen in relation to its surroundings, such writing becomes almost a revolt, an heroic attempt to re- capture something we have lost. I would like to show you some examples of her workmanship, and to discuss its qualities with as much discrimination as I can. It is a task that needs a touch far lighter than my clumsy one — yet I selfishly attempt it for the sake of the pleasure which the mere handling of such fabrics confers. II To mount a hill is to lift with you something lighter and brighter than yourself or than any meaner burden. You lift the world, you raise the horizon ; you give a signal for the distance to stand up. It is like the scene in the Vatican when a Cardinal, with his dramatic Italian hands, bids the kneeling groups to arise. He does more than bid them. He lifts them, he gathers them up, far and near, with the upward gesture of both arms ; he takes them to their feet with the compulsion of his expressive force. Or it is as when a conductor takes his players to successive heights of music. You summon the sea, you bring the mountains, the The Collected Prose of Mrs. Meynell (Burns & Gates).