Turner, in the common fields here, did gather one of the
prettiest nosegays that ever I saw in my life."
And so the story rambles on to the end of that day's
pleasuring; with cups of milk, and glowworms, and people
walking at sundown with their wives and children, and all the
way home Pepys still dreaming "of the old age of the world"
and the early innocence of man. This was how he walked
through life, his eyes and ears wide open, and his hand, you
will observe, not shut; and thus he observed the lives, the
speech, and the manners of his fellow-men, with prose
fidelity of detail and yet a lingering glamour of romance.
It was "two or three days after" that he extended this
passage in the pages of his journal, and the style has thus
the benefit of some reflection. It is generally supposed
that, as a writer, Pepys must rank at the bottom of the scale
of merit. But a style which is indefatigably lively,
telling, and picturesque through six large volumes of
everyday experience, which deals with the whole matter of a
life, and yet is rarely wearisome, which condescends to the
most fastidious particulars, and yet sweeps all away in the
forthright current of the narrative, - such a style may be
ungrammatical, it may be inelegant, it may be one tissue of
mistakes, but it can never be devoid of merit. The first and
the true function of the writer has been thoroughly performed
throughout; and though the manner of his utterance may be
childishly awkward, the matter has been transformed and
assimilated by his unfeigned interest and delight.
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