Hunting the Pithy Phrase

New Zealand Listener, Volume 31, Issue 797, 29 October 1954, Page 24

Hunting the Pithy Phrase

by

ALAN

MULGAN

thology, the personal reflects the mind of its editor, and if he is a man of rare quality, the result for the reader will be a very pleasant intimacy. In covering a literature, or a section of it, the wise anthologist seeks other opinions, and in any case he has to consider reputation and wide representation. He may not greatly admire all that he includes. The man who prints just what N ORE than the general an-

he likes, because he likes it, offers himself to the reader as combined critic and lover. "Come with me," he seems to say, "and Ill tell you what I love." That is why the late Lord Wavell’s collection of poetry, Other Men’s Flowers, is so fascinating. That great soldier and acute thinker makes his purely personal choice, and actually recalls the effect of some of his favourites on his decisions in war. Viscount Samuel, the collector of this volume", is not a soldier, and his test of entry is interest, not necessarily approval, but the book has this intimate quality. These are the jottings, spread over 64 years, of one who .has_ held _ several high offices, led a party,

and written books, and -------- is held in the highest esteem by friend and foe. Many of us obscure folk try to keep such notebooks, but, alas-! My own resemble a set of scarecrows. Most of us who write, however, appreciate a good quotation, and agree with Emerson’s saying, which Lord Samuel quotes, that next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Quotation is an art. Its justification lies in the infinite number of good things said in verse and prose. Why not sharpen our own sentences on others’ whetstones, or adorn them with flowers from distant gardens? But gently, gently. Quotations can be the cushion of the lazy, or the. miscalculation of. the over-zealous. Lord Samuel’s advice to public speakers on any occasion, from platforms to weddings, is to limit quotation to one item, or at most two. (I am not sure there is much need for this advice in New Zealand.) There is apt comparison with cooking. In speech and writing, too much (quotation) spoils the flavour. Naturally, Lord Samuel avoids the well-known, and. what he has netted illustrates my point about the infinity of the field. If I may compare myself humbly with his lordship, I have been keenly interested, over a long life of journalism and authorship, in this kind of thing. I have read, memorised and noted, and spent many hours hunting for dimly recollected passages. Yes, I have used dictionaries of quotations, but not always for discovery. The best quotations are those that come to the memory as you write and think; verification may have to follow. I have quoted hundreds of times, sometimes too freely. Yet, of

the two thousand passages in this book, I had come upon fewer than forty before. As this collection indicates, prose is mote prolific of quotations than verse. There is more of it, and, broadly speaking, a poet below a certain level sinks into obscurity, whereas the rank and file of prose writers produce many usable sayings. Who was the American who wrote, of an actor’s Lear, that he played the King as if he thought someone was

going to play the ace? I have noted the expression "hell-for-leisure,’ a perfect three-word picture of a social condition; who originated it? A friend enriched me with an amendment to Marvell’s magnificent lines: "But at my back I always hear, Time’s wingéd chariot changing gear." I don’t know if she was the coiner. Any observant man with a gift of words is bound to say something worth noting. The relatively obscure, the unknown, and the great, keep company in a collection that ranges from the Greeks to P. G. Wodehouse and The Times, and draws on America, France, Germany, China and Russia. "That little girl was in the right," said The Times in 1944, "who tearfully declared that she knew there was no Father Christmas, but did not want anyone to say so." Divided into scores of sections, from "Action" and "Amusements" to "Work," "Wrong" and "Youth," the book is for dipping and savouring and the pleasure of it is enhanced by an agreeable format and admirable indexes. So, by fireside or in bed, you may wander where you please. You may confirm your opinion of Napoleon, or be’ shocked (for there is a curious cult of Napoleon among British peoples) by reading what certain illustrious Frenchmen have said of him. The legend of Napoleon, said Anatole France, was "the triumph of vulgarity." Your critical eye for bureaucracy may catch this from 1950: "Like the typical civil servant who has a difficulty for every solution." You may pass from the astringency of Dean Inge: "It is a peculiarity of theological architecture that the foundations are ingeniously supported by the superstructure," to the enthusiasm of Lowes Dickenson: "An unspoilt youth of twenty with his mind just waking up ‘ (continued on next page)

(continued from previous page) and his feeling all fresh and open to good is the most beautiful thing this world produces." And you will certainly note the compliment Sheridan paid to a young lady: "Won’t you come into the garden? I would like my roses to see you." One source has a special interest for New Zealand. From 1937 to 1945 Dr. Karl Popper, an Austrian, was senior lecturer in philosophy at Canterbury University College. He went to a chair in London and wrote a notable book called The Open Society and its Enemies, in which he arraigns Plato as the progenitor of totalitarianism. That Lord Samuel quotes him several times is compliment to Professor Popper and proof of the freshness of his own mind in old age: Through this miscellany, to which he himself contributes, runs a pattern of the collector's tastes and _ philosophy. Lord Samuel stands for the liberal tradition in politics, letters and life. As a party creed, Liberalism may be dead or

dying, but if the liberal spirit dies, freedom will perish with it. There are plain signs of his Victorian up-bringing, such as the passages from Mill and Emerson. It is also significant that, next to Lord Samuel himself, George Meredith is the most often quoted person. His style and buoyancy are among the reasons for the decline in Meredith’s reputation in the last thirty years, but how good he is in these extracts-how penetrating and clear, how fresh and stimulating! Neither Meredith: nor Lord Samuel has any truck with defeatism or despair. "Among the cardinal virtues," says Lord Samuel, "should be counted public spirit." "Pessimism is futile, and optimism is fatuous, and both are false. The right creed is meliorism." Thus does this veteran look at the world at eighty-four. ~.

*Viscount Samuel’s Book of Quoiations, second edition; James Barrie, English pfice 15/-.