Essays in the Art of Writing. Роберт Стивенсон

is thrown off, and, but for a slight repetition of the F and V, the whole matter turns, almost too obtrusively, on S and R; first S coming to the front, and then R. In the concluding phrase all these favourite letters, and even the flat A, a timid preference for which is just perceptible, are discarded at a blow and in a bundle; and to make the break more obvious, every word ends with a dental, and all but one with T, for which we have been cautiously prepared since the beginning. The singular dignity of the first clause, and this hammer-stroke of the last, go far to make the charm of this exquisite sentence. But it is fair to own that S and R are used a little coarsely.

      1

      First published in the Contemporary Review, April 1885

      2

      Milton.

      3

      Milton.

      4

      Milton.

      5

      As PVF w

1

First published in the Contemporary Review, April 1885

2

Milton.

3

Milton.

4

Milton.

5

As PVF will continue to haunt us through our English examples, take, by way of comparison, this Latin verse, of which it forms a chief adornment, and do not hold me answerable for the all too Roman freedom of the sense: ‘Hanc volo, quæ facilis, quæ palliolata vagatur.’