The Arcades Project - Operi

accentuate the rags of mendicants . . . . Here begins the line that leads through
Rembrandt's etchings and Murillo's beggar boys to the street types of Steinlen:'
J. Hnizinga, Herbst des Mille/alters (Munich, 1928), p. 448.50 At issue, of course, is
actually a very specific phenomenon. [N15,4]
"The past has left images of itself in literary texts, images comparahle to those
which are imprinted by light on a photosensitive plate. The future alone possesses
developers active enough to scan such surfaces perfectly. Many pages in Marivaux
or Rousseau contain a mysterious meaning which the first readers of these texts
could not fully have deciphered." Andre Monglond, le Preronwntismefrmu;a.is,
vol. I, Le NeTaS preromnntique (Grenohle, 1930L p. xii. [N15a,1]
A revealing vision of progress in Hugo, "Paris incendie" (L'Annie terrible) :
What! Sacrifice everything! Even the gTanary!
"What! The library, arch where davvn arises,
Unfathomable ABC of the ideal, where progress,
Etenml reader, leans on its elbows and dreams ... [N15a,2]
On the style one should strive for: "It is through everyday words that style bites
into and penetrates the reader. It is through them that great thoughts circulate
and are accepted as genuine, like gold or silver imprinted with a recognized seal.
They inspire confidence in the person who uses them to make his thoughts more
understandable; for one recognizes by such usage of common language a man
who knows life and the world, and who stays in touch with things. Moreover,
these words make for a frank style. They show that the author has long rumi·
nated the thought or the feeling expressed, that he has made them so much his
own, so llluch a nlatter of habit, that for hUll the most common expressions
suffice to express ideas that have become natural to him after long deliberation.
In the end, what one says in this way will appear more truthful, for nothing is so
clear, when it COlues to words, than those we call familiar; and clarity is some­
thing so characteristic of the truth that it is often confused with it!' Nothing more
subtle than the suggestion: be clear so as to have at least the appearance of truth.
Offered in this way, the advice to write simply-which usually harbors resent­
ment-has the highest authority. J. Joubert, Oeuvres (Paris, 1883), vol. 2, p. 293
("Du Style;' no. 99). [N15a,3]
The person who could develop the Joubertian dialectic of precepts would pro­
duce a stylistics worth mentioning. For example, Joubert recommends the use of
"everyday words)) but warns against "colloquial language," which "expresses
things relevant to our present customs only" ("Du Style," no. 67 < Oeuvres) vol. 2,
p. 286» . [N16,1]
""AU heautiful expressions are susceptible of more than one meaning. When a
beautiful expression presents a meaning more beautiful than the author s own, it