But though this form of merit is without doubt
the most sensible and seizing, it is far from being equally
present in all writers. The effect of words in Shakespeare,
their singular justice, significance, and poetic charm, is
different, indeed, from the effect of words in Addison or
Fielding. Or, to take an example nearer home, the words in
Carlyle seem electrified into an energy of lineament, like
the faces of men furiously moved; whilst the words in
Macaulay, apt enough to convey his meaning, harmonious enough
in sound, yet glide from the memory like undistinguished
elements in a general effect. But the first class of writers
have no monopoly of literary merit. There is a sense in
which Addison is superior to Carlyle; a sense in which Cicero
is better than Tacitus, in which Voltaire excels Montaigne:
it certainly lies not in the choice of words; it lies not in
the interest or value of the matter; it lies not in force of
intellect, of poetry, or of humour. The three first are but
infants to the three second; and yet each, in a particular
point of literary art, excels his superior in the whole.
What is that point?
2. THE WEB. - Literature, although it stands apart by reason
of the great destiny and general use of its medium in the
affairs of men, is yet an art like other arts. Of these we
may distinguish two great classes: those arts, like
sculpture, painting, acting, which are representative, or, as
used to be said very clumsily, imitative; and those, like
architecture, music, and the dance, which are self-
sufficient, and merely presentative.
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