Elegance

Use in the book

The architectural fragment associates public exposure with magnificence and variety, and a small private circle with elegance. This distributes qualities by audience and setting rather than ranking every elegant work above a magnificent one. Excessive love of verbal elegance is then called childish when it demands elegance where none would be better. Clarity in forms supplies a positive explanation: elegance makes them easy to grasp, even to count. The remark on Villemain adds practice and studied ease to the account; an achieved effect need not be entirely spontaneous.

Places to read

1. I, p. 425, entry 1, ¶1Elegance is fitted to a private circle rather than undifferentiated public display.
2. II, p. 529, entry 11, ¶1Demanding elegance everywhere is criticized as childish.
3. II, p. 833, entry 2, ¶1Clarity in forms explains an elegant effect.
4. II, p. 816, entry 2, ¶1Studied elegance and practiced ease complicate naturalness.

Translation in this edition

The English translation uses a small circle for petit monde without naming a social class. “Most felicitous” renders heureux as literary success. The compressed “There has been everything” in the Villemain note is left awkward because the French is awkward.