That human art in which it is most difficult to achieve this end (and in which it is far easier to neglect it than in any other) is the art of writing. Yet this much is certain, that unconstructed writing is at once worthless and ephemeral: and nearly the whole of our modern English writing is unconstructed.
The matter of survival is perhaps not the most important, though it is a test of a kind, and it is a test which every serious writer feels most intimately. The essential is the matter of excellence1: that a piece of work should achieve its end. But in either character, the character of survival or the character of intrinsic excellence, construction deliberate and successful is the fundamental condition.
It may be objected that the mass of writing must in any age neglect construction. We write to establish a record for a few days: or to send a thousand unimportant messages: or to express for others or for ourselves something very vague and perhaps very weak in the way of emotion, which does not demand construction and at any rate cannot command it. No writer can be judged by the entirety of his writings, for these would include every note he ever sent round the corner; every memorandum2 he ever made upon his shirt cuff3. But when a man sets out to write as a serious business, proclaiming that by the nature of his publication and presentment that he is doing something he thinks worthy4 of the time and place in which he lives and of the people to whom he belongs, then if he does not construct he is negligible.
Yet, I say, the great mass of men to-day do not attempt it in the English tongue, and the proof is that you can discover in their slipshod pages nothing of a seal or stamp. You do not, opening a book at random5, say at once: “This is the voice of such and such a one.” It is no one’s manner or voice. It is part of a common babel.
Therefore in such a time as that of our decline, to come across work which is planned, executed and achieved has something of the effect produced by the finding of a wrought6 human thing in the wild. It is like finding, as I once found, deep hidden in the tangled7 rank grass of autumn in Burgundy, on the edge of a wood not far from Dijon, a neglected statue of the eighteenth century. It is like coming round the corner of some wholly desolate8 upper valley in the mountains and seeing before one a well-cultivated close and a strong house in the midst.
It is now many years—I forget how many; it may be twenty or more, or it may be a little less—since The Wallet of Kai Lung was sent me by a friend. The effect produced upon my mind at the first opening of its pages was in the same category as the effect produced by the discovery of that hidden statue in Burgundy, or the coming upon an unexpected house in the turn of a high Pyrenean gorge9. Here was something worth doing and done. It was not a plan attempted and only part achieved (though even that would be rare enough to-day, and a memorable10 exception); it was a thing intended, wrought out, completed and established. Therefore it was destined11 to endure and, what is more important, it was a success.
The time in which we live affords very few of such moments of relief: here and there a good piece of verse, in The New Age or in the now defunct12 Westminster: here and there a lapidary13 phrase such as a score or more of Blatchford’s which remain fixed14 in my memory. Here and there a letter written to the newspapers in a moment of indignation when the writer, not trained to the craft, strikes out the metal justly at white heat. But, I say, the thing is extremely rare, and in the shape of a complete book rarest of all.
The Wallet of Kai Lung was a thing made deliberately15, in hard material and completely successful. It was meant to produce a particular effect of humour by the use of a foreign convention, the Chinese convention, in the English tongue. It was meant to produce a certain effect of philosophy and at the same time it was meant to produce a certain completed interest of fiction, of relation, of a short epic16. It did all these things.
It is one of the tests of excellent work that such work is economic, that is, that there is nothing redundant17 in order or in vocabulary, and at the same time nothing elliptic—in the full sense of that word: that is, no sentence in which so much is omitted that the reader is left puzzled. That is the quality you get in really good statuary—in Houdon, for instance, or in that triumph the archaic18 Archer19 in the Louvre. The Wallet of Kai Lung satisfied all these conditions.
I do not know how often I have read it since I first possessed20 it. I know how many copies there are in my house—just over a dozen. I know with what care I have bound it constantly for presentation to friends. I have been asked for an introduction to this its successor, Kai Lung’s Golden Hours. It is worthy of its forerunner21. There is the same plan, exactitude, working-out and achievement; and therefore the same complete satisfaction in the reading, or to be more accurate, in the incorporation22 of the work with oneself.
All this is not extravagant23 praise, nor even praise at all in the conventional sense of that term. It is merely a judgment24: a putting into as carefully exact words as I can find the appreciation25 I make of this style and its triumph.
The reviewer in his art must quote passages. It is hardly the part of a Preface writer to do that. But to show what I mean I can at least quote the following:
“Your insight is clear and unbiased,” said the gracious
Sovereign. “But however entrancing it is to wander unchecked
mind from another subject of almost equal importance?”
Or again:
“It has been said,” he began at length, withdrawing his eyes
reluctantly from an unusually large insect upon the ceiling and
situations in life that cannot be honourably28 settled, and
without any loss of time, either by suicide, a bag of gold, or
by thrusting a despised antagonist29 over the edge of a
Or again:
“After secretly observing the unstudied grace of her
movements, the most celebrated31 picture-maker of the province
burned the implements32 of his craft, and began life anew as a
trainer of performing elephants.”
You cannot read these sentences, I think, without agreeing with what has been said above. If you doubt it, take the old test and try to write that kind of thing yourself.
In connection with such achievements it is customary to-day to deplore33 the lack of public appreciation. Either to blame the hurried millions of chance readers because they have only bought a few thousands of a masterpiece; or, what is worse still, to pretend that good work is for the few and that the mass will never appreciate it—in reply to which it is sufficient to say that the critic himself is one of the mass and could not be distinguished34 from others of the mass by his very own self were he a looker-on.
In the best of times (the most stable, the least hurried) the date at which general appreciation comes is a matter of chance, and to-day the presentation of any achieved work is like the reading of Keats to a football crowd. It is of no significance whatsoever35 to English Letters whether one of its glories be appreciated at the moment it issues from the press or ten years later, or twenty, or fifty. Further, after a very small margin36 is passed, a margin of a few hundreds at the most, it matters little whether strong permanent work finds a thousand or fifty thousand or a million of readers. Rock stands and mud washes away.
What is indeed to be deplored37 is the lack of communication between those who desire to find good stuff and those who can produce it: it is in the attempt to build a bridge between the one and the other that men who have the privilege of hearing a good thing betimes write such words as I am writing here.
HILAIRE BELLOC
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1
excellence
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| n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德 | |
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memorandum
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| n.备忘录，便笺 | |
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cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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7
tangled
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| adj. 纠缠的，紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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gorge
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| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
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10
memorable
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| adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的 | |
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11
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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12
defunct
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| adj.死亡的；已倒闭的 | |
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13
lapidary
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| n.宝石匠；adj.宝石的；简洁优雅的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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deliberately
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| adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地 | |
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16
epic
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| n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的 | |
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17
redundant
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| adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的 | |
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18
archaic
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| adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的 | |
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archer
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| n.射手，弓箭手 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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21
forerunner
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| n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先 | |
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22
incorporation
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| n.设立，合并，法人组织 | |
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23
extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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24
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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25
appreciation
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| n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨 | |
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26
enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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27
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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28
honourably
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| adv.可尊敬地，光荣地，体面地 | |
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29
antagonist
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| n.敌人，对抗者，对手 | |
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30
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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31
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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32
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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33
deplore
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| vt.哀叹，对...深感遗憾 | |
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34
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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35
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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36
margin
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| n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘 | |
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37
deplored
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| v.悲叹，痛惜，强烈反对( deplore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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