by the exercise of common-sense. Common-sense will tell you
that nobody, not even a genius, can be simultaneously vulgar
and distinguished, or beautiful and ugly, or precise and vague,
or tender and harsh. And common-sense will therefore tell you
that to try to set up vital contradictions between matter and style
is absurd. When there is a superficial contradiction, one of
the two mutually-contradicting qualities is of far less importance
than the other. If you refer literature to the standards of life,
common-sense will at once decide which quality should count heaviest
in your esteem. You will be in no danger of weighing a mere
maladroitness of manner against a fine trait of character, or of letting
a graceful deportment blind you to a fundamental vacuity. When in doubt,
ignore style, and think of the matter as you would think of an individual.



Chapter VII

WRESTLING WITH AN AUTHOR

Having disposed, so far as is possible and necessary, of that
formidable question of style, let us now return to Charles Lamb,
whose essay on *Dream Children* was the originating cause
of our inquiry into style. As we have made a beginning of Lamb,
it will be well to make an end of him. In the preliminary stages
of literary culture, nothing is more helpful, in the way
of kindling an interest and keeping it well alight, than
to specialise for a time on one author, and particularly on an author
so frankly and curiously "human" as Lamb is. I do not mean
that you should imprison yourself with Lamb's complete works