ONE ADVANTAGE OF JOURNALISM

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 609, 11 September 1909, Page 9

ONE ADVANTAGE OF JOURNALISM

It seems to have cscaped • remark in' "tho recent, discussions 'of, tho relation of journalism to literature that the practice of journalisnv may bo a salutary discipline, because tho .necessity of Imvin" to' produce ccrtain work within a. certain (imited. timo may'.'lielp to corcct, any tendency' to affectation or; overelaboration. 'That was the'..cxpericncc of Sainte-Beuve. In ono of his ''Pensees" ho x tells-us , that lie had a "manner" to begin with, and, was fond of toying with, language and refining upon his thought, .when suddenly Necessity, "that groat Muso," com-

polled him to.abandon the practice. "That Necessity," ho says, "Vhicli •' in": critical moments can malco the dumb speak and | t.io stammerer articulate, compelled mo in an | instant to hit upon a niothod of expression prcciso, clear, and rapid, to speak to everyone in tho language of everyone, and I.thaiik Necessity for. having dono so." Thoro aro other authors for whom ono could have wished^aliko-fortune. To his cxtrcmo admirers it may seom high treason to include Walter Pater among them, but Pater's. method of composition was just of the sort to eliminate thoso' qualities of directness and enorgy which tho practice of journalism fos- ■ . r ?'i ? ls firs' draft was written 011 paper with' vrido rlinos, and wido spaces were loft botween tho words. 011 this ho would work until it overflowed, and then ho transcribed.' Transcript followed transcript indefinitely bcforo the manuscript w;ent to tho printer, and tho ..proof which-tho printer returned was subjected to revision. Tho consequenco was that richness was secured at tho cost 'of, movomcnt, and one may agreo with Mr. Ferris Greenslet, who says: "It can bo maintainod , with much assurance that it would liavo been for Patic-r had he, as a young man, been driven by< some temporal necessity; to write rapidly under pressure. Tho most noticeable quality of his style is the very opposite of verve.".