SYMMETRY AND INCIDENT

(Expository Plan of Selection II)

Japanese art is alien,

A. though it has affected all the arts of the west;

1. It appears in the passing of music from the symmetry of melody to the isolation of the leit motif.

2. It appears also in domestic architecture.

3.

It appears also in "irregular" metres.

4. It appears also in portraits,

(a) which show the Japanese exaggeration of major emphasis.

(b) and have the expectancy of aspens rather than the tranquillity of oaks.

B. for it is primarily not symmetrical;

1. In ornament it evades symmetry.

(a) In general it avoids the repetition and counterchange habitual in Greek and Gothic.

(b) In diaper patterns, where repetition is necessary, it has recourse to interruption.

x. etc., etc.

2. In composition it substitutes for symmetry position, (a) on the principle of Italian scales,

(b) intervals counting like rests in music,

x. the spaces being just so wide.

C. then it is bent, not on the permanent, but on the transi

tory;

1. as appears in its influence on etching,

I.

(a) the transitoriness of printed paper exaggerating that of painted paper.

2. as appears in its landscapes,

(a) which have no eye for distances and greatness,

(b) which seek, not slight novelty, but slight dis

order,

x. as if a man should carry home a crooked stone instead of seeing the moon,

y. typically in their painting of waves.

(1) etc., etc.

D. and finally it belies the human form.

1. Japanese figure-painting is intent upon perpetual slight deformity.

(a) This is not merely a misconception arising from our lack of sympathy.

x. Though we may fail to recognize their standard of human beauty, we can see that they

do not try to present that standard,

(1) except here and there, as in the case of

a warrior.

(b) Their figures are evidently grotesque and derisive. x. They find humour in a man with his head "beneath his shoulders ";

(1) With us this is humorous only to a child, and to him only in a drawing, not in

life.

y. and this humour is without purpose of satire, (1) the artist seeming freely equal with his hideous models,

(2) though of course there is satire in Japanese caricature.

2. But the exterior symmetry of the body is an abiding principle of human life,

(a) in spite of the internal asymmetry,

x. man being Greek without and Japanese within.

(b) in spite of its perpetual inflection

IV. LITERARY FORM

78. Though exposition may of course appear in almost any literary form, it is roughly commensurate with what by common consent is called the essay. The collected essays of Matthew Arnold, Pater, or Macaulay, for instance, are substantially expository, and so in lighter vein are those of Augustine Birrell, or Robert Louis Stevenson, or Agnes Repplier. Most of these are essays in criticism of art, literary or musical or graphic; but equally essays, and even more strictly expository, are Huxley's or Tyndall's, on natural phenomena and their laws, and many essays in history or politics, as Froude's or Gladstone's. Widely as these differ in tone and method, — and it is easy by extending the list to show even greater variety, they have enough in common to show that the peculiar literary form of exposition is the essay.

79. Some longer expository works, such as Symonds's or Pater's on the Renaissance, are substantially series of essays. A few, notably Bacon's Advancement of Learning, are single, the whole work being a progressive unity. Most histories, especially recent histories,1 give exposition large place. Whether the whole method of a history is rather expository or rather narrative depends on the temper and purpose of the author. In either case almost any history has whole sections of pure exposition, as Green's chapter on the Puritans, or Mommsen's on the Græco-Italian stock. But as in histories it is often difficult to decide whether a given part should be called narration or exposition, so it is equally diffi

1 The earlier English histories, from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle to Clarendon, are almost pure narrative; and so, to a great degree, is McMaster's History of the People of the United States.

cult and equally unprofitable to determine in other cases between exposition and description. True, the typically narrative and descriptive appear more naturally in fiction, and the description in a novel is typically different from the description in an essay; but in general the kinds of composition do not correspond exactly to the forms of literature, and they do not stand alone. An essay in history may be both narrative and expository, and descriptive as well. The point for the student of exposition is simply to subordinate description and narration to his expository end.

Thus a report, as of a survey or an exploration, though it necessarily contains description, is measured by its effect as exposition. Thus again a review of a book or a play, though it usually sums up the plot, is measured by its force and justice as an appreciation. In critical appreciations of art, as in literature, or of life, as of characters or tendencies in history, most students should find opportunity to work, not only at first hand, that is by their own interpretations, but also in real forms, that is in forms existing outside of the class-room.

80. On the other hand, as narration and description are freely used to fortify exposition, so exposition, both in literature and in common use, constantly subserves. argument. In fact, exposition is very commonly but a part (§ 136) or a means of proof. We explain a situation in order to show that it should be alleviated. Possible and profitable as it is merely to set forth the facts and their significance (§ 52), the significance is so often matter of dispute or concern-else we might not have chosen the subject that we more commonly go on to urge our convictions and assail the convictions of others. Tyndall's essay on the meteoric theory of the sun's

heat consists mainly of exposition; but its purpose is argumentative. Stevenson's A Foot-note to History is concerned, not merely with explaining Samoa to the civilized world, but with getting by that means justice. from the civilized world for Samoa. It is necessary to

distinguish the two kinds clearly; to keep them separate would be sometimes a superfluous care. For after all, the commonest use and need of exposition is as a means to persuasion.