Volume 16, Number 8 · May 6, 1971
Bonjour Chazal
By W.H. Auden
M. Malcolm de Chazal is a poet, though he writes in prose (not, thank God, in free verse). His chosen literary form is the aphorism. This is an aristocratic genre. The aphorist does not argue or explain: he asserts. At the same time, however, he addresses his reader as an equal, not as a pupil in need of instruction. It is for the reader to decide, on the basis of his own experience whether an aphorism be true or false. For example, when Valéry says, 'Consciousness reigns but does not govern,' I do not feel I have been told a fact hitherto unknown to me, but rather, that I have been made conscious of a fact which, unconsciously, I have always known. On the other hand, reading through Plastic Sense,[*] I came upon one statement, only one, 'the insect can fathom the lowing of the cow,' which seems to me false, that is to say, my reaction is, 'What scientific reason is there to suppose that the insect can? Such observations of insects as I have made incline me to think it cannot.'
Feature, 1424 words
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