Guide to the Art of English Prose

Originally published in The Lamp (Issue 35), a Catholic journal dedicated to the intersection of science, literature, and the fine arts.

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🖋️ About the Author: David Bentley Hart

David Bentley Hart is a prolific scholar whose recent contributions to literature and theology include:

• Prisms, Veils: A Book of Fables (Notre Dame)
• All Things Are Full of Gods: The Mysteries of Mind and Life (Yale)
• The Light of Tabor: Toward a Monistic Christology (Notre Dame)

📖 Other Featured Works in this Issue

• The Pope at the End of the World — Matthew Walther
• Shivering at the Gates — Nic Rowan
• The House of Ten Thousand Books — Robin Ward
• The Gloominess of ‘Monk Mode’ — Bethel McGrew
• The Ideals — Carino Hodder

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The Aesthetic Ideals of Sir Thomas Browne

There are very few segments of Sir Thomas Browne's writing that I do not find utterly captivating, but two specific excerpts provide an especially profound sense of pleasure.

I. The Lyrical and the Melancholy

The first is the introductory paragraph of his piece, "On Dreams":

Half our dayes wee passe in the shadowe of the earth, and the brother of death exacteth a third part of our lives. A good part of our sleepes is peeced out with visions, and phantasticall objects wherin wee are confessedly deceaved. The day supplyeth us with truths, the night with fictions and falsehoods, which uncomfortably divide the natural account of our beings. And therefore having passed the day in sober labours and rationall enquiries of truth, wee are fayne to betake ourselves unto such a state of being, wherin the soberest heads have acted all the monstrosities of melancholy, and which unto open eyes are no better then folly and madnesse.

II. The Dense and the Droll

The second is the closing of the second chapter in the fifth book of the massive, yet tragically overlooked, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (specifically the section "Of the Picture of Dolphins"):

And thus also must that picture be taken of a Dolphin clasping an Anchor: that is, not really, as is by most conceived out of affection unto man, conveighing the Anchor unto the ground: but emblematically, according as Pierius hath expressed it, The swiftest animal conjoyned with that heavy body, implying that common moral, Festina lentè : and that celerity should always be contempered with cunctation.

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Analysis of Style

To me, these passages are like perfectly cut gemstones from a golden era of English literature. While the first possesses a haunting, melodic quality, the second offers a delightful, intellectual playfulness that has amused me for nearly forty years.

The true "idiot bliss," however, comes from seeing them side-by-side. Together, they represent the full spectrum of Browne's voice:

Browne's writing is akin to a Baroque palace. It is a structure of contradictions:

• Grandiose yet Lyrical
• Opulent yet Elegant
• Monstrous yet Precious
• Inordinate yet Harmonious

His stylistic quirks—the "volutes and modillions" of his prose—are monuments to a fleeting moment in the 17th century. During this time, English had reached its peak expressive capacity, and writers felt no guilt in utilizing every tool available to them. It was an era of $\text{Sophisticated Innocence}$.

![Image Description: A conceptual illustration of a 17th-century Baroque library with gilded ceilings and towering bookshelves, representing the architectural nature of Browne's prose.]

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The Paradox of the King James Bible

It is often argued that the King James Bible (KJV) represents the opposite antithesis of Browne's style, favoring clarity and plainness. While the KJV is indeed a masterpiece of transparent phrasing, it is not as simple as one might assume.

Consider this passage from Ecclesiastes:

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not... While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened... In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble... Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken... Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

Structural Comparison

The difference between the KJV and Browne is primarily a matter of linguistic architecture:

While the KJV uses a "gleaming paratactic flow," Browne employs "massy hypotactic architectonics." However, the KJV is still complex in its syntax and cadence. The gap between these two styles is not an absolute chasm.

To understand this, one must look at the broader landscape of the era, including writers like John Florio.

The "Prose Formula" of the Era

If we were to express the quality of this period's writing mathematically, it might look like: $\text{Expressive Power} = \int (\text{Clarity} + \text{Complexity}) \, dt$

Where $t$ represents the brief window of the 17th century before the "bad conscience" of later minimalism set in.