Page:The Dial (Volume 75).djvu/421

Rh tells us the theme that may be developed and the theme that offers no opportunities for development. A writer who describes an omnibus after having said it was red lacks the literary instinct. And I think that even if we overlook the extraordinary number of grammatical mistakes, we find the essential Mr Hardy in the description of Fanny Robin's grave. It has become a habit to limit style to a choice of words; but it's much more. We can have style though the choice of words may be casual and undistinguished. Pater speaks of style as unity of subject and language; there was something else, too, but having forgotten what is the third quality that makes for style I will add something of my own: that style is a summary of all the writer has seen and heard and thought, wherefore if the style be confused and turgid the story will limp painfully from a feeble beginning to a dim and confused close.

A wood may be described in two words. When Scott wrote: "Land of brown heath and scraggy wood," we are in Scotland. But the woods and fields that Mr Hardy speaks of are never before our eyes. I think he tells us that Alec rode some distance into the wood and made a couch for Tess in the dead leaves. He buttons his overcoat round her shoulders and