sprig of wild woodbine holds a charm beyond all the perfumes of
the chemist's shop.

In order to be natural there is no necessity to ignore the
elegancies of style; for what is style? _Le style est l'homme_.
The style is the man. A perfect style, then, is attained when the
written page is the exact expression of the train of thought as
it lies in the writer's head. A style is absolutely perfect when
it is absolutely natural.

Artificial embroidery, purple patches, and golden vapour are
often the defects and not the perfection of style.

Language can be simple, however, without being vulgar or
commonplace.

What book will ever equal the Bible for simplicity, yet what
dignity? What preacher ever approached OUR DIVINE LORD; and,
humanly speaking, what was the source of His strength?

He accommodated Himself to His hearers. From the open book of
nature He made the realms of grace familiar to the minds of
children. He pointed to the lilies of the field, to the ravens of
the wood, to the ripening bud and the angry cloud. "_Ut ex iis
quae animus novit, surgat ad incognita quae non novit_."[1]

[1] Third Nocturn for Non-Virgins.

He used the world around us to lift our thoughts to the world
above us.