What he had gained from his predecessors was a direct,
speaking style, and to walk on his own feet instead of on
academical stilts. There was never a man of letters with
more absolute command of his means; and we may say of him,
without excess, that his style was his slave. Hence that
energy of epithet, so concise and telling, that a foreigner
is tempted to explain it by some special richness or aptitude
in the dialect he wrote. Hence that Homeric justice and
completeness of description which gives us the very
physiognomy of nature, in body and detail, as nature is.
Hence, too, the unbroken literary quality of his best pieces,
which keeps him from any slip into the weariful trade of
word-painting, and presents everything, as everything should
be presented by the art of words, in a clear, continuous
medium of thought. Principal Shairp, for instance, gives us
a paraphrase of one tough verse of the original; and for
those who know the Greek poets only by paraphrase, this has
the very quality they are accustomed to look for and admire
in Greek. The contemporaries of Burns were surprised that he
should visit so many celebrated mountains and waterfalls, and
not seize the opportunity to make a poem. Indeed, it is not
for those who have a true command of the art of words, but
for peddling, professional amateurs, that these pointed
occasions are most useful and inspiring. As those who speak
French imperfectly are glad to dwell on any topic they may
have talked upon or heard others talk upon before, because
they know appropriate words for it in French, so the dabbler
in verse rejoices to behold a waterfall, because he has
learned the sentiment and knows appropriate words for it in