turning over the pages of coleridge's "table talk" recently, my attention was arrested oy several passages i had marked, many years ago, in that suggestive book. two or three of these, referring to the style of the bible, resuscitated some reflections i made on the first reading, and which i now venture to express: with all deference, let me add, to coleridge's ethereal genius and magical mastery of words.
"intense study of the bible," he says, "will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style." granted; and the sacred scriptures of any people and any creed would have the some influence. vulgarity, unless it is bestial, is monkeyish. obviously this is a characteristic alien to religion, which is based on the sense of wonder, and deals chiefly with the sublime. while the mind is absorbed by the unseen, imagination is called into play; and imagination is the antithesis of vulgarity. the unknown is also the terrible, and when the mind is alarmed there is no room for the puerilities of egotism. any exaltation of feeling serves the same purpose. the most vulgar woman, in terror at a danger to her child, is lifted into the sphere of tragedy, and becomes a subject for art; nor could the lowest wretch exhibit vulgarity when committing a murder under the influence of passion. vulgarity, in short, is self-consciousness, or at least only compatible with it; and displays itself in self-assertion at the expense of others, or in disregard or in defiance of their feelings. now monotheism, such as the bible in its sublimest parts is pregnant with, naturally banishes this disposition, just in proportion as it is real. it may tolerate, and even cherish, many other evils, but not that; for vulgarity, as i understand it, is absolutely inconsistent with awe. how then do i account for the vulgarities of the salvation army? simply by the fact that these people have no awe; they show the absurdities of religion without its sentiments. they are townspeople, used to music-halls, public-houses, street-fights, and frivolous crowds. their antics would be impish to religionists whose awe was nurtured by hills and forests, the rising and setting sun, and the majesty of night.
not only do we find the same austere simplicity in the vedas, the kuran, and other sacred scriptures; we find it in most of the old world literature. the characteristic of modern writings is subtlety and dexterity; that of the ancient, massiveness and directness; and the same difference holds good in a comparison of the various stages of our literature. the simplicity of the elizabethan lyrics, to say nothing of chaucer, is only to be emulated in later ages, whose life is so much more complex, by a recluse visionary like blake. even when shelley approaches it, in such songs as that of beatrice in the last act of the "the cenci," we feel that stream of music is crossed and shaken by subtle under-currents.
what coleridge claims for the bible may be claimed for all imaginative and passionate literature. ?schylus, lucretius, dante, milton; how does the bible excel these in that respect? when we come to shakespeare we find a sublimity which transcends that of isaiah, ezekiel, and job, with a pathos, a humor, and a wit, such as no hebrew writer ever imagined. and shakepeare's superb style triumphs easily in all these fields. coleridge recommends the bible as an antidote to vulgarity. i would recommend milton as much, dante more, and shakespeare beyond all.
"our version of the bible," coleridge elsewhere says, "has preserved a purity of meaning to many terms of natural objects. without this holdfast, our vitiated imaginations would refine away language to mere abstractions." this is merely saying that our bible, designed for common people centuries ago, is a monument of saxon english. clearly that is an accident of our translation, and not an essence of the bible itself. as much may be said for all our ancient standards.
coleridge admits that our new testament is less elegant and correct than the old, and contains "slovenly phrases which would never have come from ben jonson, or any other good prose writer of the day." yet our new testament, according to mr. swinburne (and there is no better judge), is translated from canine greek into divine english. the truth is, the style of our bible is owing to the translators. they lived before the hurry of our cheap periodical press, when men wrote leisurely for leisured readers. there was also no great accumulation of native literature, and scholars studied almost exclusively the masterpieces of greece and rome. their sense of style was therefore superior. read the dedication to king james in our authorised version, then the introduction to our revised version, and see what an immense difference there is between the styles. or read paul's noble praise of charity in the two versions. by substituting love for charity, the revisers have vitiated the sense, and destroyed the balance of the style. their mincing monosyllable is too weak to bear the structural weight of the clauses. a closer analysis shows that they have spoiled the passage throughout. they had no ear: in other words, no style. the old translators had ears, and knew other people had. their work was meant to be read aloud, and it bears the test. that test is the supreme one, and goes deeper than hearing. flaubert, a great master of style, always read his manuscript aloud; holding that phrases are right when they correspond to all the necessities of respiration, while ill-written phrases oppress the chest, disturb the beatings of the heart, and contravene the conditions of life. shakespeare bears this test triumphantly. in his great passages, respiration is easy and pronunciation simple; the language is a splendid and mellifluous stream.
i venture to say in conclusion: consult the revised version of the bible for meaning, but read the old one for style. it is a treasury of musical and vigorous saxon, a well of strong english undefiled; although hebrew is a poor language, and the greek of the new testament is perhaps the worst ever written. but do not think, as macaulay pretended, that the language of the bible is sufficient for every purpose. it sustained the genius of bunyan, but the mightier genius of shakespeare had to draw from other sources to support its flight. our english bible contains six thousand words; shakespeare's vocabulary contains nine thousand more.
