Style

Style is an essay by Walter Alexander Raleigh. The table of the principal matters lists topics such as The Triumph of Letters, The Problem of Style, and The Instrument and the Audience, with a Digression on the Actor. The text says that the actor is reduced to fiddle for the term of his natural life upon the face and fingers that he got from his mother. The text says that in none of the world's great polities has the practice of this art been found consistent with noble rank or honourable estate.

The text says that no art is easy, least of all the art of letters. The text describes the instrument of literature as a living keyboard of notes which are all incessantly changing in value, so that what rang true under Dr. Johnson's hand may sound flat or sharp now. The text says there may be literary quality, it is well to remember, in the words of a parrot, if only its cage has been happily placed, but that meaning and soul there cannot be.