If by "the best
words" we mean anything, we must mean the best words for the highest
possible purpose. To take an analogy: if we say that a democratic
government is the best kind of government, we mean that it most completely
fulfills the highest function of a government--the realisation of the will
of the people. But it is also a function of government to organise the
people and--although, just as we may think that Blake's poem finally
beats Ruskin's prose on Ruskin's own ground, we may think, too, that the
government that best represents the people will finally best organise
the people--it may quite plausibly be said that in this business an
aristocratic or militant government will, in an imperfectly conditioned
civilisation (such as that of the world to-day), excel a democratic
government. Nevertheless, we still say with an easy mind that a democratic
government is the best government, without qualification, since it excels
in the highest purpose of government. Clearly Coleridge implies, and
reasonably enough, an elaboration such as this in his definition--the best
words in the best order. To say that Blake and Ruskin, in those passages,
were giving expression to dissimilar experiences is but to emphasise the
distinction between prose and poetry.
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