Page:The Craftsmanship of Writing.djvu/133

THE TECHNIQUE OF FORM why the sculptor should not carve a griffin out of stone, although he never saw a griffin in the flesh. Otherwise we should have been deprived of some of the most interesting experiments in English literature: Gulliver's Travels, and Pilgrim's Progress, the De Coverley Papers, Alice's Adventures, the Jungle Books, and Redcoat Captain—the list could be prolonged indefinitely. But any writer who wishes to discard the accepted forms and make new forms for himself would do well to remember what Ruskin said regarding the difference between the Lombard griffin and the classical griffin, in his chapter on the Grotesque:

"Well, but," the reader says, "what do you mean by calling either of them true? There never were such beasts in the world as either of these."

No, never; but the difference is, that the Lombard workman did really see a griffin in his

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