"Of all forms of literature," Virginia Woolf once said, "the essay is the one which least calls for the use of long words. The principle which controls it is simply that it should give pleasure" ("The Modern Essay"). As educator Emma Miller Bolenius demonstrates in this survey, the essay has provided a rich variety of literary pleasures over the centuries.
"Teaching the Essay" is a slightly abbreviated version of a study that was first published in 1915, both as an article in the journal Popular Educator (May 1915) and as chapter nine of Bolenius's textbook Teaching Literature in the Grammar Grades and High School (Houghton Mifflin). Following her review of British essayists (below), Bolenius concludes with "America and the Essay" and "Composition and the Essay."
Teaching the Essay (1915)
by Emma Miller Bolenius
In no kind of writing does the choice of a book rival the choice of a friend as in the essay. In the drama the playwright remains entirely behind scenes; in the novel his side-remarks are unwelcome unless done with artless appeal or other extenuating circumstances. In the oration delivered with all the fire of emotion through the actual voice, glance of the eye, and gesture, the personal bond is established instantly between the listener and the speaker. Of all types of prose that are to be read, however, the essay is the most direct avenue of expression for the writer's self, for his play of personality and fancy, for all the intimate little turns of expression that are peculiarly his. The choice of these essayist-friends is most vital to us, because through them we can grow into their greater expanse of soul and outlook. "The educated man," said [Thomas Henry] Huxley, "has learned to love all beauty, whether of nature or of art, to hate all vileness, and to respect others as himself."
What is the Essay?
"The essay is properly a collection of notes," says The Century Dictionary, "indicating certain aspects of a subject or suggesting thought concerning it, rather than the orderly or exhaustive treatment of it. It is not a formal siege, but a series of assaults, essays, or attempts upon it. Hence the name."
There are two great classes of essays: formal and informal, according to the method of treatment. The informal essay held high rank during the 18th century. [Richard] Steele [1672-1729] and [Joseph] Addison [1672-1719] were able exponents during that time, and [Charles] Lamb [1775-1834] in the later era. The formal essay came to a height of popularity later, in the 19th century, and found ready masters in such writers as [Thomas] Macaulay [1800-1859], [Thomas] Carlyle [1795-1881], and [Thomas] De Quincey [1785-1859].
These two types of writings differ in characteristics as well as in aim. Informal essays are written for amusement or gentle aids to reform or pleasing satire; formal essays, on the other hand, aim to give a fair view of a subject, dwelling not unduly upon faults, but building up a body of opinion based upon definite standards of criticism. The informal essay is easy in style, conversational, rambling, following the personal whim of the writer; the formal essay, however, is carefully constructed in outline, follows a definite method of development, and presents a critical, scientific attitude toward the subject-matter. The informal essay shows the writer's personality more than the formal. The former deals with entertaining comments on manners and customs, bits of instruction woven in description and exposition; the latter presents definite and accurate information about the subject in brief and impersonal way. It is written for the intellect and aims to treat the particular phase of the subject in an exhaustive, although not necessarily a minutely detailed, way.
Kinds of Essays
According to the kind of matter treated, essays range over a considerable field. There is the philosophical essay that deals with abstract thought, so well handled by such masters as [Francis] Bacon [1561-1626] and [Ralph Waldo] Emerson [1803-1882]. There is the critical essay, by which Macaulay, [Matthew] Arnold [1822-1888], Carlyle, [James Russell] Lowell [1819-1891], [William] Hazlitt [1778-1830] and others have thrown appreciative light upon the beauties of literature. There is the aesthetical essay dealing with art and its canons, an essay admirably presented by [John] Ruskin [1819-1900], [Edmund] Burke [1729-1797] and Emerson. There is the essay about nature, in which field [Henry David] Thoreau [1817-1862] is supreme. There is the historical essay, by which men like Macaulay, Carlyle, and [James] Froude [1818-1894] have vitalized periods or people of historical prominence. There is the biographical essay. There is the essay of life and manners, best developed by such writers as Addison and [Washington] Irving [1783-1859]. Then there is the merely conversational essay--the stuff of which intimate brilliant talks are made and in the style of such conversations--better handled by Charles Lamb and Oliver Wendell Holmes [1809-1894] than any other writers.
Many of the great essays in literature appeared first in periodicals. Macaulay's productions are noteworthy in this respect. Other essays might be termed occasional, induced by a certain occasion--the publication of a book, for instance, that drew upon itself a book review.
The Development of Prose
During the Elizabethan Age prose was used, but much of it was so artificially distorted in its efforts to be euphuistic that it failed of effect. Three writers, however, deserve mention as unique in their contributions to the beginning of prose style. Sir Philip Sidney [1554-1586] might be said to have written the first critical essay in his Defense of Poesie, and Bacon's Essays, we well know, brought to their author fame long after his other works written in Latin were forgotten by the general reader. It was Richard Hooker [c. 1554-1600], however, who founded during this period the first school of English prose, a type of prose with elaborate structure, harmonious cadences, dignity, and freedom from the over-use of the conceits popularized by [John] Lyly [1554-1606]. His style was grounded in classical models and had some of the faults of the same, the sentences only too often being long and involved with the verb at the end. Yet this type of prose ran its course until nearly the end of the 17th century, when it was displaced by a more virile type used by [John] Dryden [1631-1700].
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