A few literal translations of Icelandic
phrases may be thrown in; the result, as furniture-dealers say, is a
"made-up article."
On the subject of style another hint may be offered. Style may be good
in itself, but inappropriate to the subject. For example, style which
may be excellently adapted to a theological essay, may be but ill-suited
for a dialogue in a novel. There are subjects of which the poet says
_Ornari res ipsa vetat, contenta doceri_.
The matter declines to be adorned, and is content with being clearly
stated. I do not know what would occur if the writer of the Money
Article in the _Times_ treated his topic with reckless gaiety. Probably
that number of the journal in which the essay appeared would have a large
sale, but the author might achieve professional failure; in the office.
On the whole it may not be the wiser plan to write about the Origins of
Religion in the style which might suit a study of the life of ballet
dancers; the two MM. Halevy, the learned and the popular, would make a
blunder if they exchanged styles. Yet Gibbon never denies himself a
jest, and Montesquieu's _Esprit des Lois_ was called _L'Esprit sur les
Lois_.
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