Page:The Journal of English and Germanic Philology Volume 18.djvu/35

 Creek 29 as the scientist posits a common world of matter. This world of thought can be translated into language in a variety of ways. If the language is striking and brilliant, the result is literature. For the romanticist, on the other hand, each individual has his own world of thought, and it is the business of the writer to translate this individual world into language. But the mere bringing to- gether of the universal truths, or even of definite images associated with the universal facts of experience, is inadequate for this pur- pose. The writer, according to this view, has a task somewhat like that of the symbolist, that of expressing that for which no words exist. If we may say that the word which the writer uses creates a perfectly clear picture around which there is a region of shadows and mysteries where vague associations and emotions lurk, then it is the clear picture which the classicist uses, but it is the twilight zone which is dear to the romanticist. The reason is of course that the material of the romanticist is subjective. When the romanti- cist has written, the content is different with each change of word or phrase, each modification of rhythm caused by a rearrangement of the parts of a sentence. He cannot distinguish between style and thought. So far, however, the romantic theory seems to make literature representative as much as does the classical theory, the difference being merely in the material represented. The justifica- tion for the word "creation" is possible only if the process of com- position is really creative. 13 But this is implied hi the theory that style is the incarnation of thought. The problem may become clearer as stated in the language of recent criticism, which shows still a sympathy for different theories of style according as its tendencies are classical or romantic. The distinction is shown in an interesting way hi the work of two recent Professors of Poetry in Oxford University. Courthope's critical opinions were derived largely from the classical sources which in- spired the writers of the eighteenth century, and the attitude is very similar. In his lectures on "Poetical Conception" and "Poetical Expression" 14 this attitude is made manifest again and again, as two short quotations will make clear. 13 The term " creative literature " is often used to distinguish poems, novels dramas, etc., from critical writing. The distinction is valuable, but has no re- lation to our problem. u Life in Poetry: Law in Taste, pp. 37 ff.